KING’S Lynn head into crunch time in their battle to reach the Premiership play-offs when they travel to Leicester on Thursday (7.30pm).

The sides meet at the Hydroscand Arena, Beaumont Park with the PSH Environmental Stars then hosting the return fixture at the Adrian Flux Arena next Thursday, September 10.

At minimum, the Stars need to be taking the aggregate point from the contests, but depending upon the results of their main rivals Ipswich, Lynn may need to win each of their remaining three matches.

That position may well become clearer after Thursday night as the Witches are also in action with a visit to bottom club Northampton.

On paper at least, the trip to Leicester is the toughest match on the Stars’ schedule, as the Lions currently boast a 100 per cent home record throughout the 2026 season.

However, Lynn should be confident of at least improving on the 51-39 defeat they suffered on their previous visit in mid-July, where they suffered a number of setbacks including an engine failure for No.1 Max Fricke who spent three hugely successful seasons with Leicester.

Manager Rob Lyon names a full-strength side and continues with Ben Cook partnering Fricke in opening combination, whilst Jan Kvech and Cooper Rushen team up in the middle order and skipper Chris Harris rides at No.5.

Harris is a former Leicester rider whilst Rushen rode for the club in the NDL last season and put up an all-action show on the Stars’ previous visit.

The home side need a win to officially confirm their play-off place, and they bring in Justin Sedgmen to guest at reserve for the retired Kyle Howarth.

Lyon said: “They are all tough meetings, and the way it’s worked out both ourselves and Ipswich have to race at both Leicester and Northampton.

“Ipswich may need an away win themselves, but that really depends on what we do. It certainly won’t be easy for either of us at Northampton because they have improved.

“With so many Bank Holiday matches being rained off we’re really in the same situation that we were after we beat Ipswich, and now we need to go to Leicester and perform as we are capable of doing. Then we’ll have a clearer picture of whether we could be in or not.”

Stars fans not making the trip to the Hydroscand Arena can follow all the action with Leicester’s live streaming coverage, which is available from https://www.leicesterlionstv.com/ . Live score updates can also be found at https://live.britishspeedway.co.uk/ .

LEICESTER: Ryan Douglas, Drew Kemp, Sam Masters, Dan Thompson, Nick Morris, Justin Sedgmen, Joe Thompson.
KING’S LYNN: Max Fricke, Ben Cook, Jan Kvech, Cooper Rushen, Chris Harris, Jordan Jenkins, Jody Scott.