IPSWICH and holders Leicester contest the first Premiership silverware of the season when they meet in the KO Cup Final this week.

The Lions are defending the trophy they won against King’s Lynn last July, with the first leg taking place at Foxhall tonight (Monday).

There is added spice to the contest after the two managers clashed over track conditions in a recent league encounter between the sides in Suffolk, which the Lions won after a late comeback.

However, the Witches were below strength for that meeting and they now track a full one-to-seven including Danish racer Kevin Juhl Pedersen who returns from lung bruising.

Ipswich manager Paul Hurry said: “Leicester came to us a couple of weeks back and created havoc. We’ll just draw a line under that. We regroup and refocus for this week.

“I’m not saying I forget those things; when I raced, you forget things like that and move on, but you also don’t forget them. It’s still there in the back of your mind.

“Obviously, we want to do the best job that we possibly can, and hopefully all the boys will rise to the occasion. Let’s see where we end up.

“They hurt us the other week, although we were without Danny (King) and Richard (Lawson). They have people in their team who can raise their game, so we have to treat them with respect and do the best job we possibly can.”

Lions boss Stewart Dickson said: “We have to deal with whatever Ipswich throw at us, and I really feel this Final is a 50/50 situation. I said that the minute I knew it was going to be us and them.

“I’ve got my target in mind as to what we need, although I’ll be keeping that to myself. It is one of those tracks you can go to and they can blow you away, so we need to go there and keep it as close as we possibly can.

“It’s great to be in another Final and what we must do is set things up for the second leg on Thursday – so stating the obvious, we cannot afford to start like we did last week against Belle Vue.

“We cannot do that on either Monday or Thursday, and the riders know that – and I don’t think we will.”

IPSWICH: Tom Brennan, Danny King, Richard Lawson, Scott Nicholls, Tobiasz Musielak, Kevin Juhl Pedersen, Jason Edwards. LEICESTER: Ryan Douglas, Dan Thompson, Nick Morris, Kyle Howarth, Sam Masters, Drew Kemp, Joe Thompson.

SCB Referee: Michael Breckon

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