Stoke Potters v Edinburgh Monarchs

Our final away Premier League match of the season ended in a narrow defeat, giving us our second bonus of the season.

We held the lead briefly in the early stages but once we lost it, we didn't provide enough heat winners to give ourselves a realistic chance.

However the team battled away, showing as usual that they are a solid side, but lack race-winning power. Theo Pijper, maximum the night before, never settled in this match and finished on two. He had a stoppage, an exclusion, a second and a last in a night to forget for him.

Daniele looked impressive in the first heat, taking an outside line and almost going to the front. He finished a good second to Thorp.

As in the home match, we had an advantage at reserve, and showed it with a 5-1 in heat 2. We kept Clews at the back in heat 3 and also shared heat 4, but lost 4-2's in the next two to drop behind.

The pattern of sharing heats behind the home heat leader resumed over the next two heats. We were fortunate in heat 7 as Evans fell on the second lap while lying second to Lemon.

Heat 8 should have been a chance, and Daniele was away well, but he didn't move out to block Leverington's run. As soon as Trent hit the outside dirt, he was away.

William took his third second place and was looking quite lively as we lost heat 9 4-2.

Suddenly to everyone's surprise, a Monarch made a start! Matthew made it to the first bend in heat 10 and didn't give Thorp a chance. Another third from Henrik got us back to 2 points down.

Unfortunately heat 11 proved to be a disaster. Theo had gate 4 which was the best one, the shortest distance to the dirt line, but he was beaten to it by Evans. Trying to ride outside the home reserve, he came down and was excluded. Could it have been given as first bend bunching? Maybe, but Theo looked uncertain on that outside line all night.

Meanwhile Daniele had gated well and led briefly, but he was halted by the stoppage, and in the rerun lost a 5-1.

Heat 12 was interesting, with Evans leading and Matthew right up his exhaust pipe. On the last lap, Evans stopped and we were quite lucky to avoid a collision, with Matthew and Derek going through for a 5-1.

So that was back to 2 down again. Lemon gated in heat 13 but we had Thorp at the back - until the home no. 1 passed Theo coming out of the fourth bend.

Kessler won heat 14, so we needed 5-1 in the last heat. Matthew and William were the obvious choices, but it was a tall order against Lemon (unbeaten) and Kessler.

William produced a memorable first corner round the boards to pass both the home riders. Meanwhile Matthew battled manfully, putting Lemon under pressure, but on a track which had allowed only one genuine pass all night he didn't have much chance.

It was a reasonable performance and had Theo had a normal night we may have won. We can't claim to be unlucky as Evans had an ef while leading, and in any case we need to gain more race wins ourselves if we are to win matches.

Which is where we came in?