Scorpions aim to re-ignite season

HENDERSON INSURANCE Scunthorpe Scorpions aim to put a dreadful fortnight behind them, when they clash with local rivals Sheffield Tigers in the Knockout Cup quarter-finals this Thursday and Friday.

Scorpions travel down the M18 to Owlerton for the first leg on Thursday, before staging the return leg at the Eddie Wright Raceway on Friday (7.30pm start-time) with the aggregate winners progressing to the semi-finals.

Scunthorpe have lost their last three league meetings in the Championship, including home defeats to Peterborough (40-50) and Lakeside (44-45). The North Lincolnshire were heavily fancied this season, but the injury-hit side have struggled in recent weeks.

Promoter Rob Godfrey admitted: “The wheels have fallen off a little over the last couple of weeks, but we’re going to glue those wheels back on, and get going again.

“I think we’ve put together a decent enough side for our two cup matches against Sheffield for this week.

“We’ve got Dimitri Berge coming in as the guest at No 2, and we know he can fly around both Sheffield and Scunthorpe. That allows us to use rider replacement at No 1, where everyone can take a ride.

“We’ve had our problems, but so have Sheffield, so we’ll see how it goes. It’s nice to have a bit of a breather from the league meetings, where the pressure is really on, although of course we want to do well in the cup as well.

“We do have a plan of how we can get back to where we want to be, which is chasing silverware on several fronts and grabbing one of those top four spots in the league.

“I’m confident that our July will be far better than our June, but in the meantime, we will be looking to finish the month on a high with an aggregate cup win over the Tigers.”