King's Lynn Stars face Premiership trip to Sheffield on Thursday night
King’s Lynn Stars boss Alex Brady hopes reserve Frederik Jakobsen will be fit for Thursday’s away Premiership fixture at Sheffield.
Jakobsen sat out last Thursday’s 39-51 home defeat by Sheffield at the Adrian Flux Arena, which ended any faint play-off hopes, after a crash in Sweden.
Rising Star reserve Jason Edwards won't be fit following a crash at Mildenhall a week ago.
With both of their regular Rising Stars ruled out, Lynn will bring in Jack Smith of the Belle Vue Colts to guest at No.7 at Owlerton.
Minors & Brady Stars team manager Brady said: “Freddie hopes to be fit and Jason will be RS subject to a fitness test this week. Jason had a scan and there were no breaks or fractures but he’s got very limited movement.
“A few days off the bike will serve him well with no racing for him at the weekend for Redcar.”
Brady added the Dane was sorely missed versus the Tigers: “We missed Frederik in a big way. Credit to Sheffield, they were sharper from the starts than us and raced harder than we did.
“Disappointing, but we’ll put this all behind us and try and finish strongly in the rest of the league and look forward to the cup final in October against this team and I’m sure with Fred back in the side, we’ll be a different team.
“They stepped on the gas. It was nip and tuck in the
early stages and towards the end we were a lot stronger but it was in that middle section which is a big problem we
had last season, as well. It felt very deja vu.
“Everyone tried hard. We lacked support for Thomas (Jorgensen, 8+3 points), Rich (Lawson, 12) and Nicolai (Klindt, 11) who were excellent.
“Against a team like Sheffield you can’t afford to do that. As a fan, I liked the racing. A lot of fans said they liked the racing. I’d trade that for terrible racing and a 60-30.” On Lawson, who seems back to his best, Brady added: “He had a couple of problems with engines and bits and pieces which he now seems to have rectified and is scoring well.
“He is much more like the Richard of last season, which we really did miss in the middle section of this season when we were a six-man team.
“That’s the big positive. If we can get everybody else back firing again and finish the season strongly in the league; and our cup campaign is obviously going to be season-defining for us now.”
On mercurial Dane Jorgensen, Brady remarked: “Thomas is a rider who is very, very capable. Sometimes I think he doesn’t realise how capable he really is.
“Sometimes a bit of self doubt creeps in if he doesn’t do well in his first ride.
“Tonight, going out as part of a 5-1 set himself up nicely for the rest of the evening. When he’s on song there’s not many better people around King’s Lynn.”
Monday's Premiership Pairs at Belle Vue was postponed with heavy rain forecast throughout the day. The provisional re-staging is Thursday, October 27. Round five at Sheffield will be on Monday, October 24. Lynn sit second in the standings.
There was also no racing in the UK at the weekend as a mark of respect to HM Queen Elizabeth II while Lynn's scheduled meeting at Belle Vue on Monday night has also been postponed.
