BELLE VUE V FOXES, pREVIEW
NORTHAMPTON Foxes face arguably their toughest assignment of the season when they head to Belle Vue for a Premiership Round 2 fixture on Monday (7.30pm).
The Foxes were edged out by the Aces in yet another close-fought fought contest at the Shaleway on Thursday, with the trip to Manchester now taking them to the league’s strongest home venue.
Belle Vue have been in awesome form around the National Speedway Stadium this year, and in fact the Foxes’ display in May, where they went down 53-37, was a very respectable result given some of the other scores recorded by the hosts.
The Aces have twice topped the 60-point mark in recent weeks, against Leicester and Ipswich, and it is that sort of form and the ability therefore to secure aggregate wins which makes them title favourites at this stage.
However, the Foxes do have plenty of track knowledge with No.1 Jaimon Lidsey having been a long-time former Belle Vue rider, as is Matej Zagar who returns to the NSS just over two months after breaking his ankle in a freak crash on Bank Holiday Monday.
The Aces are without two of their top five for the meeting, after Jason Doyle suffered rib damage in a crash during practice for Saturday’s GP in Sweden, whilst Peter Kildemand sustained a shoulder injury when he came to grief at Plymouth.
In-form Ben Cook, a former Belle Vue rider, deputises for Kildemand whilst Doyle will be covered by either another guest or the rider replacement facility.
The Foxes name an unchanged line-up for what is their only fixture this week, with their next home meeting coming up against Sheffield on Monday July 20.
Danish star Niels-Kristian Iversen has been in excellent form since his own comeback from injury, and he carded double figure scores in both of last week’s matches.
He won three races at King’s Lynn, including the crucial Heat 15 victory over home No.1 Max Fricke, and then he added three more successes on Thursday albeit missing out in Heat 15 on that occasion – something he admits was hugely frustrating.
Iversen said: “Belle Vue have a strong team, and they are top of the league for a reason. It’s obviously not ideal that they beat us at home, but we just need to keep working and I’m sure we’ll get there.
“The story of the season has been that we’ve had so many close meetings. We managed to get a little bit out of it at King’s Lynn, one point, and we just need to keep building and get these few extra points here and there.
“Thursday is behind us now. We need to learn from the good, learn from the mistakes and come back again.”
Monday’s meeting in Manchester will be live streamed by BSN – passes available from https://www.britishspeedwaynetwork.co.uk/ .
BELLE VUE: Brady Kurtz, Norick Blodorn, Ben Cook, Zach Cook, Jason Doyle (Guest or R/R), Tate Zischke, Will Cairns.
NORTHAMPTON: Jaimon Lidsey, Kye Thomson, Matej Zagar, Niels-Kristian Iversen, Nicolai Klindt, Troy Batchelor, Luke Harrison.