SCORPIONS WANT POSITIVE FIRST LEG RESULT

CUP holders Ellie Rose Travel Scunthorpe Scorpions would like to pick up a victory in the away leg of their Cab Direct Knockout Cup quarter-final at Berwick tonight (Saturday, 7pm).

Scunthorpe are involved in two away meetings in the space of two days, since they are also in action in BSN Series at Workington on Sunday afternoon (3.30pm).

Scorpions progressed to the quarter-finals, after completing a first round 100-80 aggregate victory over Plymouth last weekend.

Jack Smith will again come in to guest for Scorpions in place of the injured Nathan Ablitt. On Thursday, Smith top-scored with 14 points, as the joint Scunthorpe / Sheffield National League team commenced their fixtures with a 48-42 over the Middlesbrough Tigers on Thursday evening at Sheffield’s Owlerton Stadium.

Scunthorpe promoter Rob Godfrey said: “We will go into the meeting at Berwick with a positive attitude. Winning the away leg would put us in charge of the quarter-final.

“We don’t want to be in the position of trying to pull back a deficit in the second leg at the Eddie Wright Raceway on Friday, May 17,

“We are the defending champions of the Knockout Cup, and Simon Lambert and the rest of the lads are up for winning it again this season. We’ve already got past Plymouth and it is one step at a time – we now need to concentrate on making sure we beat Berwick.”

The line-up for the Berwick Bandits is a little uncertain at the moment, after both Jye Etheridge and Drew Kemp were injured at Edinburgh on Friday evening and are uncertain starters for tonight.

Expected teams for tonight (Saturday):

Berwick Bandits: 1. Richard Lawson (guest), 2. Danyon Hume, 3. Jye Etheridge (TBC), 4. Drew Kemp (TBC), 5. Rory Schlein, 6. Freddy Hodder, 7. Bastian Borke.

Ellis Rose Travel Scunthorpe Scorpions: 1. Kyle Howarth, 2. Connor Mountain, 3. Simon Lambert (captain), 4. Michael Palm Toft, 5. Jake Allen, 6. Jack Smith (guest), 7. Luke Harrison.