Great chance for the Hammers

9:35am Monday 31st March 2008

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TONIGHT Lakeside Hammers take on Belle Vue Aces in their opening Elite League match of the season at Kirkmanshulme Lane.

The Hammers are in decent form with three wins from their last five matches, whereas the Aces have lost two of their first three.

Belle Vue have Aussie Robert Ksiezak making his debut. The 21-year-old Glasgow rider, who is Belle Vue's nominated No 8, replaces Steve Boxall who dislocated a shoulder and cut two fingers in a crash in the eighth heat of the 54-39 Craven Shield defeat at Coventry.

He pushed the shoulder back into place himself but went to hospital for X-rays which showed there were no breaks.

Aces' chief David Gordon said: "Steve is a tough lad but he is very sore and will need a few days off."

Therefore the One51 Aces will line-up with Jason Crump, Billy Forsberg, Charlie Gjedde, Lukasz Jankowski, Joe Screen, Michal Rajkowski and Steve Boxall.

Lakeside have no injury worries so their team will line-up with Andreas Jonsson, Joonas Kylmakorpi, Adam Shields, Leigh Lanham, Jonas Davidsson, Ricky Kling and Lubos Tomicek.

Tonight's Elite League opener has come around at a great time in manager Jon Cook's opinion, with their latest victory under his team's belt, the Hammers look to start their season in spectacular fashion.

He said: "The boys have responded fantastically well to last week's defeat and really got stuck in."

Looking further ahead, Hammers' 58-35 victory over the Peterborough Panthers means the Lakeside boys now travel to the East of England Showground next week hoping for a result to secure Craven Shield qualification.