King's Lynn Stars team manager Dale Allitt was pleased with how his side coped without star rider Robert Lambert after a tight away defeat at Leicester Lions.

The Stars will chase six points on their home track next week after a 48-42 defeat in the Knockout Cup quarter-final first leg.

Allitt's men were still in with a shout of winning the meeting until the last heat, where a 5-1 from the Lions made sure they are on top ahead of the return fixture.

Captain and British sensation Lambert was left stranded in Latvia by a delayed flight, so King's Lynn were forced to draft in Connor Mountain as a guest who could contribute only one point.

Niels-Kristian Iversen weighed in with nine from the number one spot, with only Ty Proctor getting into double figures after reaching 10. Boss Allitt admits Lambert was sorely missed.

He said: 'It was a difficult day, Robert's flight was delayed for seven hours at 10.15am which meant, not only were we missing him, but we then had to find a rider. It had to be someone with a four-point average as per the rules, too, and when you have a performer of that calibre missing it's depriving the public.

'We looked at every possible option to get Robert on a plane in time, but there wasn't one from where he was in Riga. I don't make the rules – but we have to abide by them. With the form he's been in, it doesn't take a genius to work out that we probably would have won with him in the side.

'The boys dug deep and we'd have probably taken the result, given the circumstances, it's all to play for and I'm over the moon with their dedication on a difficult night. We'll bounce back, we've won both of our meetings by more than six points so the challenge for us is to do it again.

Leicester 48: Hans Andersen 13+1, Kenneth Bjerre 11+1, Krystian Pieszczek 8, Kyle Newman 5+1, James Sarjeant 4+1, Ricky Wells 4, Todd Kurtz 3.

King's Lynn 42: Ty Proctor 10+1, Niels-Kristian Iversen 9, Lewis Kerr 7+1, Thomas Jorgensen 7, Michael Palm Toft 4+1, Kasper Andersen 4+1, Connor Mountain 1.