THE SOMERSET Rebels have a busy schedule ahead of them as they face the prospect of three matches in as many days.

They start with a trek up to the North East tonight (Thursday) to face the Redcar Bears in the Premier League, before returning to the Oak Tree Arena on Friday for the visit of the Ipswich Witches in what is scheduled to be Somerset's final group match in the League Cup.

After initially thinking that their participation in the League Cup had come to an end as a result of their recent defeat at Plymouth, their demolition of Rye House at the Oak Tree Arena last Friday has opened the door a-jar to give the Rebels an outside possibility of progressing through to the semi-final stages of the competition.

To do this they need to win against Ipswich by seven points or more to gain all three match points and hope that Peterborough, the current group leaders, lose both of their remaining group matches which are away at Plymouth, also on Friday evening, and then on Sunday when they visit Rye House.

Finally, the Rebels travel to Cumbria on Saturday where they will face the Workington Comets in the first leg of the first round KO Cup tie between the two sides.

Somerset will be hoping looking to keep the scores tight ahead of the second leg, which is due to be held at the Oaktree Arena a week Friday (May 9) - and if they are looking for any lucky omens, on the two previous occasions that Somerset have won the Knock Out Cup, in 2008 and again last year, they have defeated Workington on their way to winning the trophy.

Team manager Garry May said: β€œIt's a tough schedule, but the boys are well up for it, they responded well to the disappointment of our loss at Plymouth to take Rye House apart at home last Friday to give us a glimmer of a chance of qualifying for the semi-final stages of the League Cup, before we then head up to Workington to start the defence of our Knock Out Cup crown.”