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LAKESIDE Hammers have a busy week coming up with three Sky Sports Elite League matches in three days.

They start away at Poole tonight before moving on to Swindon on Thursday and then it's all back to the Hammers Arena Essex Raceway on Friday for the return match against Poole.

Last week the Hammers also had three meetings, with the first one away at Belle Vue on the Monday and although the only time the home team led was after the final heat the main blow for the Hammers came when both Andreas Jonsson and Leigh Lanham were injured in heat 11.

That undoubtedly cost the Hammers victory in Manchester. Lanham was able to take his place in the side away at Peterborough in the final Craven Shield group match on the Thursday but Jonsson's place was taken by Poole's Davey Watt.

The resultant draw was the best the Hammers have achieved at the East of England Showground in many a year and was sufficient to claim the top place in their group and, therefore, a place in either the semi final or final of the competition.

That will be decided next Monday when Coventry visit Belle Vue and anything other than a Coventry win will see the Hammers go straight through into the final.

A Coventry win would mean Hammers will have to race against Poole in the semi final.

The Hammers' home match against Swindon in the Elite League saw the Hammers, once again, go into the meeting minus their No.1, Andreas Jonsson but despite former Hammers Leigh Adams 17 points for the Robins the Hammers came out winning by five points.

The relatively narrow margin of their victory did not fully reflect how much in command of the situation the Hammers were as they conceded a maximum 5-1 heat advantage in the final heat.

The Hammers Co-Promoter and Team Manager, Jon Cook, commented after last week's matches stating: "The loss of AJ at Belle Vue was an important factor not only in that meeting but also in the other two matches last week.

"We should have won both at Belle Vue and at Peterborough but we let things slip towards the end of those matches.

"Similarly we allowed Swindon to run us fairly close on Friday even though we had built up a 14 point lead after just six heats. We need to keep the momentum going all the way through the 15 heats."

Andreas Jonsson is expected to miss all three of this week's matches and Jon Cook has been busy in booking in suitable guests.

For the match at Poole Polish star Jarek Hampel will come into the team, on Thursday, at Swindon, Davey Watt takes another guest booking for the Hammers and then, for the home match against Poole on Friday, Cook has chosen Chris Louis of Ipswich, who is a track expert around the Arena Essex Raceway.

Stuart Douglas, the Hammers owner commented on the choice of guests by saying: "Jon has, I believe, chosen the guests well as I believe they are all capable of doing a good job for us.

"Although AJ is expected to miss all three of our matches this week he is very hopeful of returning to the side the following week.

"AJ makes a big difference to our side and, despite the solid performances from Davey Watt last week, I think we would have won at Peterborough and had an easier win against Swindon. Plus we all know that we would have won up in Manchester if AJ and Leigh hadn't got injured."

The action on Friday in the Sky Sports Elite League against the Poole Pirates at the Arena Essex Raceway gets underway at 8pm, although there will be a series of junior heats between 6.45pm and 7.15pm.

9:27am Wednesday 9th April 2008

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