Speedway: Ipswich lose Knockout Cup title to Sheffield
They lost on aggregate
Ipswich have lost their Knockout Cup title.
The Witches drew their second leg fixture against Sheffield 45-45 last night at Foxhall, meaning Sheffield were crowned Knockout Cup champions on aggregate (80-100).
A depleted Ipswich went into the fixture as big underdogs having lost 55-35 in the first leg and they had to make up the 20-point deficit without the injured trio of Jason Doyle, Emil Sayfutdinov and Jordan Jenkins.
Rider replacement was in operation at one with Tom Brennan and James Pearson coming in as guests.
"They came out and fought"
Ipswich team manager Ritchie Hawkins shared his thoughts on the draw: “I was proud of the boys tonight; it was a mammoth task ahead of them even more so after losing Jordan last night.
"They came out and put everything into it and gave us a bit of hope at the start of the meeting after starting off so well.
"It would have been easy after recent results to roll over and take another defeat and use excuses, but they didn’t. They came out and fought like you should in a cup final and it gives us great optimism going into the play-offs on Monday.
“We know what could have been if we didn’t have all of the injuries but that is the situation and as a team, we are not thinking about that.
"They are doing the best they can do, and we are missing two of the best riders in the league, it is what it is. Everyone talks about it a lot more than we do as a team, the guys are out there and are doing their jobs better than expected for most of them.
"We will have a full one to seven next week and we look forward to Monday. I was very pleased with the improvement we have shown in the last few weeks, it was immense tonight and it gives the boys a lot to build on for Monday now...
“Many congratulations to Sheffield on winning the cup, I know they were disappointed to miss out to us last year and they were by far the better team over the two legs.”
Witches host the Leicester Lions at Foxhall Stadium on Monday 9th September in a Premiership play-off semi-final first leg fixture.