KING’S Lynn head into a defining week of their season with a huge home clash against local rivals Ipswich on Monday (7.30pm).

The PSH Environmental Stars require all three points available against the Witches, and then they ideally need to back it up by winning at bottom club Northampton on Thursday.

If they can do so, it will set things up for a dramatic conclusion of the regular season and offer the realistic prospect of the Stars finishing in the top four.

First up is the visit of their Suffolk neighbours to the Adrian Flux Arena, with Ipswich having consolidated their position by defeating Leicester 50-40 at Foxhall on Thursday.

The Witches have generally been solid at home, but points on the road have proved harder to come by, with their only league victory away from their own track having come at Northampton back in June.

The last meeting between the sides at the AFA saw the Stars put in one of their best displays of the season to win 54-36, and a repeat performance would be very welcome as it would also make sure of the aggregate point, with the Witches bringing a 13-point advantage into the meeting in that regard.

Stars have declared a full-strength line-up, although that is dependent on the fitness of Jordan Jenkins who missed two matches for Berwick over the weekend after his crash at Sheffield last Monday.

Elsewhere skipper Chris Harris takes over at No.5 whilst Jan Kvech and Cooper Rushen team up in the middle order.

Ipswich are without Scott Nicholls due to a broken collarbone, but they appear to have made an astute guest booking in former Stars rider Anders Rowe, who put in a high-scoring display for his regular club Sheffield at the AFA earlier this month.

Stars manager Rob Lyon said: “We know what an important meeting this is, and it’s one that we obviously need to win and get the aggregate point.

“If we can do so, it will be all to play from that point on, so in some ways it will feel like a bit of a KO Cup Final or a play-off final for a play-off place!

“We’ll see what happens. The boys are up for it, they rode well at Sheffield last Monday and we’ll be going for it once more.”

KING’S LYNN: Max Fricke, Ben Cook, Jan Kvech, Cooper Rushen, Chris Harris, Jordan Jenkins, Jody Scott.
IPSWICH: Richard Lawson, Anders Rowe, Danny King, Tom Brennan, Tobiasz Musielak, Kevin Juhl Pedersen, Jason Edwards.