Rob Lyon admits all of his riders will need to fire in the second half of the season if King's Lynn Stars are to secure a play-off place.

An upturn in form has seen the Stars move up to fifth in the 10-team table as the Elite League takes its customary mid-summer break for the Speedway World Cup.

But even though his side have picked up points from their last three home meetings – their best run of the season so far – Lyon believes his troops still need to improve to land a coveted top-four spot come September.

The Lynn team boss said: 'Mateuz (Szczepaniak) has been a match winner in lots of ways in our last two meetings (against Poole and Coventry).

'Credit to him and Kenneth Bjerre –for his fantastic performance in place of Niels (Kristian Iversen) – for their displays against Coventry. But we struggled in the middle order on the night though.

'Magic (Maciej Janowski) crashed, hurt his knee, and was a bit out of sorts. Mads (Korneliussen) is struggling for power and speed and we need to work on those boys and get them going a bit more really.

'I still believe we have the team to do it, it's just about getting them to all fire consistently. Hopefully we can do that in the second half of the year.'

The Stars – who look likely to be without David Howe for a lengthy period due to shoulder and rib injuries – return to action on Wednesday against Eastbourne.

A maximum victory, like the one Lynn picked up against the Eagles at Saddlebow Road earlier this season, will leave Lyon's men just two points behind their fourth-placed visitors.

An away meeting at in-form Swindon Robins follows the next evening and Stars team boss Lyon insists better form on the road will reduce pressure for upcoming home fixtures.

He said: 'We need to take stock of where we are, take a look at our options and look at our situation with the team.

'We've got Eastbourne here next and it won't be easy, but there's no easy meetings now. We've got some tough home meetings to come but if we manage to win all of our home meetings and not drop too many league points then we're in with a shout.

'We do need to pick up some more points away from home mind. The more the merrier obviously. Less pressure will then come at home. It's all very finely balanced. It's going to be an interesting second half of the year.'