THE Somerset Rebels will be looking to bounce back following last weekend's back-to-back home and away defeats at the hands of the Plymouth Devils when they face the Redcar Bears at the Oaktree Arena on Friday night.

Redcar have not had the season they had hoped for and currently sit in 12th place in the Premier League table, just one rung off the bottom and have yet to 'open their account' as far as away league points are concerned.

The Bears would normally be led by Dane Lasse Bjerre, but the under-21 international has had his season brought to a premature end as a result of a hip injury recently sustained in Redcar's home Knockout Cup tie against Edinburgh and Berwick's Kevin Doolan will step in as Bjerre's guest replacement.

Another injury casualty for the Bears is the vastly experienced Stuart Robson and the rider replacement facility will be operated in his absence, leaving Czech Matej Kus, who captains the side, Dane Jonas B Andersen and recent recruit, the French rider, Dimitri Bergé to complete Redcar's top five.

Redcar's injury woes continue at reserve with Jan Graversen, the side's third Dane, and British rider Adam Roynon both currently side-lined, the latter being ruled out for the remainder of the season due to a shoulder injury and Redcar have called upon Richard Hall as Roynon's guest replacement.

Somerset will be awaiting news on whether Charles Wright will be fit to return to their line-up after he was forced to miss the Plymouth matches due to injury, with team manager Garry May expecting his side to bounce back to form following those defeats against the Devils.

He said: "One bad weekend doesn't mean that it is the end of our play-off or league championship ambitions - what we have to do is to put this behind us, take forward any learnings from these two matches and re-group ahead of this Friday's home league match against Redcar.

"We haven't suddenly become a bad team overnight and I am sure that the boys will bounce back from this and get back to the type of form we have been showing all season, prior to last weekend's set of results against Plymouth."