LAKESIDE Hammers commence a hectic schedule of three league meetings in as many days when they take to the Wimborne Road track to take on fellow title favourites Poole this evening.

They then move on to engage Swindon at Blunsdon tomorrow before returning to the Arena-Essex Raceway where they will meet Poole in the return fixture on Friday night starting at 8pm.

Andreas Jonsson is expected to miss all three of this week's matches as he is still recovering from the hand injuries sustained at Belle Vue last week and the Hammers will be using guests to cover his absence.

Co-promoter and team manager Jon Cook has been working overtime to select suitable replacements for the Swedish star and has opted for Ipswich rider Jarek Hampel to ride at Poole.

Davey Watt will swap his Poole race-jacket tomorrow to ride for the Hammers at Swindon, while Chris Louis, another Ipswich rider and a track expert around the Purfleet Raceway, will face Poole on Friday.

Lakeside owner Stuart Douglas is pleased with the choice of guests.

"Jon (Cook) has, I believe, chosen the guests well as I believe they are all capable of doing a good job for us," he stated.

"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 (against Belle Vue) if AJ and Leigh hadn't got injured."

Poole have also been hit by injury, with Adam Skornicki currently nursing a broken wrist.

The experienced Pole is likely to be out for six weeks and the Pirates are likely to utilise the rider replacement facility while he is on the sidelines.

Skornicki had been in sparkling form, having scored heavily at Poole when the clubs met in an early season challenge and he also beat Jonsson in the return fixture.

The Pirates though do include Davey Watt who made a valuable contribution in the Hammers' victory against Swindon last Friday when he scored eight points including a shock opening race win over star man Leigh Adams.

TONIGHT'S TEAMS Poole: B Pedersen, R/R for A Skornicki, D Watt, K Zabik, C Holder, Z Suchecki, F Eriksson.

Lakeside: J Hampel, L Lanham, A Shields, J Kylmakorpi, J Davidsson, R Kling, L Tomicek.