Foxes suffer double defeat and Zagar injury blow on testing Bank Holiday

The town’s new speedway team faced a hectic day on the road, travelling for their first ROWE Motor Oil Premiership matches of the season at Belle Vue in Manchester in the afternoon before heading to Leicester in the evening, and they lost both.

The match at Belle Vue saw Foxes go down 53-37, and they were then defeated 57-33 at Leicester.

But more concerning for the Foxes was a serious injury suffered Matej Zagar at Belle Vue.

Already without Niels-Kristian Iversen, who is still advised not to fly after a punctured lung, the Foxes will now be without Zagar for a number if weeks after he crashed out in his second ride of the match in heat seven.

The Slovenian headed to hospital to discover the extent of his injury, meaning he missed the evening fixture as the short-handed Foxes were beaten at Leicester.

X-rays revealed Zagar suffered a broken ankle in the crash in Manchester, and co-promoter Paul Hunsdon said: “It’s a major blow for us, and you only had to look at how badly we were affected in the middle-order at Leicester with both Matej and Niels out.

“We’ll be discussing as a promotion and management what our options are for cover, and we’ll update everyone as soon as possible with what we choose to do.”

Looking back on the two Bank Holiday road trip reversals, Foxes manager Chris Adams said: “It’s been a tough day, and I haven’t known having two away meetings on a Bank Holiday Monday before!

“At Belle Vue we were only six points down with three heats to go, and we got punished in the last three, but we had a pretty decent meeting there really although the scores don’t reflect it.

“In the evening at Leicester we knew it was going to be hard having lost Matej, and also with the reduced facility guest for Niels, but we tried our best.

“We made some good gates but we were just making some silly mistakes in the first corner and Leicester punished us for it.

“I was quite pleased, but we carried a bit too much baggage. We’re working on it, and there are still some positives there. It’s very early days and we’ll move on to Thursday now.”

This Thursday (May 7) sees the Foxes return to Brafield for their final KO Cup South Group meeting against King’s Lynn (start 7.30pm).

Results:

Belle Vue 53: Brady Kurtz 13+1, Dan Bewley 12+2, Norick Blodorn 8+1, Zach Cook 7, Tate Zischke 6+1, Leon Flint 5+1, Will Cairns 2.

Northampton Foxes 37: Jaimon Lidsey 11, Nicolai Klindt 9+1, Jye Etheridge 6, Kye Thomson 5+1, Troy Batchelor 5+1, Matej Zagar 1, Luke Harrison 0.

Leicester 57: Ryan Douglas 15, Kyle Howarth 11, Sam Masters 9+2, Drew Kemp 9+1, Nick Morris 7+2, Dan Thompson 5+2, Dan Gilkes 1.

Northampton Foxes 33: Troy Batchelor 9, Jaimon Lidsey 7+1, Kye Thomson 6, Michael Palm Toft 4+2, Luke Harrison 4+1, Nicolai Klindt 3, Matej Zagar r/r.