Witches look to bounce back in play-offs semi-final

Tom Brennan was in the Ipswich team as rider replacement for Jason Doyle

Ipswich Witches must quickly dust off the disappointment of Thursday's Knockout Cup final defeat as they look to end the season with some silverware, says team manager Richie Hawkins.

The injury-depleted Witches won the Cup 12 months ago but had a 20-point deficit to make up from the first leg against Sheffield Tigers.

And although they halved that after six races, it ended 45-45 meaning the Tigers lifted the trophy with a 100-80 aggregate.

"Really we needed a near perfect night and to start with it looked good and I was proud of the boys, they didn't roll over," Hawkins told BBC Radio Suffolk.

The Witches were without their two star riders, former world champion Jason Doyle and Emil Sayfutdinov, because of injury.

Keynan Rew was Ipswich's main contributor with 14, while Jason Pickering - named beforehand by Witches promoter Chris Louis as a big threat to the team's chances - scored 14+2 for the Tigers.

Ipswich now face a two-leg play-off against Leicester Lions - who they beat in the Cup quarter-finals - after qualifying for the Premiership title play-offs by finishing fourth.

"Everyone wrote us off (against Sheffield) but they didn't write themselves off and it's the sort of performance we can take heart from. We'll come back on Monday and try and get in another play-off final," Hawkins added.

"We've won at Leicester a lot (in) the last couple of years. We need to attack from the off like we did Sheffield and then keep the ball rolling - but the improvement was massive on the last few weeks."

The Witches have not won British speedway's league title since 1998.