Wolves in town to take on King's Lynn on Saturday.

The King's Lynn Knights will be at full strength for Saturday's home Sky Sports Elite fixture against the Wolves from Wolverhampton.

Freddie Eriksson, who misses tonight's (Wednesday) away league match at Poole as he's riding in the Swedish championship final, will jet back into this country to take his place at No.2 in the Knights' line up.

And he and the rest of the King's Lynn side will be looking to avenge the 39-51 defeat Wolverhampton inflicted upon us on their first visit of the season way back in March.

The Wolves currently lie in third place in the Sky Sports Elite League table and will be eager to pick up another win to maintain their march towards the play offs.

Looking back to that match in March, King's Lynn's cause was not helped when Nicki Pedersen had to cry off on the afternoon of the meeting having visited a hospital in Sheffield concerning the neck injury he sustained in the Knights' opening away challenge at Poole.

Frantic phone calls were made to find a replacement and, eventually, we managed to get hold of Slovenian Matej Ferjan who's bikes and engines were in bits in his workshop! Matej dropped everything, piled his gear into the van and hot footed it to Saddlebow road only to miss his opening ride, fall in his second programmed outing and fail to score in his last two!

Amazingly Lynn trailed by just two points at 26-28 after nine heats as the Knights battled for every point without inspirational skipper Pedersen but a 5-1 from Dane Jesper B Jensen and Paul Hurry in the next proved decisive.

It was a brave performance from the Knights but the Wolves just carried too much firepower for Lynn on the night although, strangely, not one of their septet managed a maximum score.

Mikael Karlsson, who's having a splendid time in this year's Grand Prix series, came closest dropping his only point in five rides to Sebastian Ulamek in heat 13 when the talented Pole produced a breathtaking ride to keep both the Karlsson brothers at bay.

One telling factor in the Wolves victory was the seven (paid 8) return from the reserve berth from young Swedish reserve Daniel Nermark.

Unfortunately his season is now over as he's sidelined with a broken thigh and Wolverhampton have now recalled popular Polish rider Adam Skornicki as a replacement for him.

Wolverhampton are a classy side especially as Dane Jesper B Jensen appears to be returning to top form after a sluggish start to the season following a good performance here back in March.

The Karlsson brothers, Mikael and Peter, will undoubtedly be the main threat to Lynn on Saturday but with Jensen now firing, and Brits Paul Hurry and David Howe never giving an inch in any race, the Silver Machine Knights know they will go into battle as the underdogs.

However there is a feeling that the Wolves can be beaten and there is a distinct air of optimism in the Lynn camp following their excellent victory over Oxford in our last home match.

As usual on Saturday, the first race will get underway at 7.45pm.

Last time Lynn met at the Norfolk Arena...

King's Lynn 39 - 51 Wolverhampton

(Elite League "A")
23rd March 2002

Scorers:

King's Lynn: Sebastian Ulamek 14, Tom P Madsen 8, Artur Pietrzyk 6, Freddie Eriksson 5+1, Travis McGowan 3+1, Emil Kramer 3+1, Matej Ferjan 0.

Wolverhampton: Mikael Karlsson 14, Jesper B Jensen 10+1, Paul Hurry 8+1, Peter Karlsson 7+1, Daniel Nermark 7+1, David Howe 5, Lee Dicken 0.

Teams as follows:

King's Lynn:

1. Nicki Pedersen (C)
2. Freddie Eriksson
3. Roman Povazhny
4. Travis McGowan
5. Sebastian Ulamek
6. Jernej Kolenko
7. Tom P Madsen
Team Manager: Nigel Wagstaff

Wolverhampton:

1. Michael Karlsson (JC)
2. David Howe
3. Peter Karlsson (JC)
4. Jesper B Jensen
5. Paul Hurry
6. Chris Neath
7. Adam Skornicki
Team Manager: Peter Adams

Note: JC denotes "joint" captains.