Edinburgh Monarchs v Berwick Bandits

With Edinburgh now sitting 11 points clear at the top of the Premier League with two matches in hand, they have nothing to prove, but tonight's Autumn challenge match at the Scotwaste Arena against Berwick (7.30) gives the visitors possible bragging rights.

From now until the end of the season, any match the Monarchs lose will be billed as 'we beat the league champions' but that is a small price to pay for a season of unbelievable results at tracks that used to strike fear into the hearts of Edinburgh sides.

Berwick is possibly the side that has performed most impressively home and away against the Monarchs in the league, actually coming out on top by one point on aggregate 93-92. So this particular challenge is probably as tough as its possible to get.

Of course timing is everything, and the teams met when Berwick were at their strongest as they emerged from a long spell affected by injuries and with a couple of new faces who added massively to the Bandits' scoring potential.

One of these was last year's Monarchs' favourite Michal Rajkowski who replaced Anders Andersen. Michal had just rediscovered his match winning abilities when he was ruled out for the rest of the season with a serious knee injury after an accident against Newcastle.

The accident involved that other huge Monarchs' favourite and former league winning captain, Derek Sneddon who actually fills in as a guest at reserve for 'The Raj' tonight. Derek is used to riding against Monarchs now and certainly knows how to get round the Armadale track.

The other new face is 25-year-old Marcin Rempala from Tarnow in Poland who was signed as a replacement for Craig Branney. And what a replacement! He scored a paid maximum from No.2 against Newcastle and 11 the following day at Glasgow.

So the Bandits now have a very solid looking top five in Rymel, Rempala, Clews, Makovsky and Complin. Then at reserve they have the fast improving New Zealander Jade Mudgway paired with Derek Sneddon. No weak links there either.

So if Monarchs seriously want to win what is being billed by Berwick as the 'Cock of the North' challenge on aggregate, they will have to be on top form at home and pile up as many points as possible in tonight's home leg.

Berwick are a very strong side on their own shale and one of Monarchs' miraculous away results are a more remote prospect there. Edinburgh have bigger fish to fry but will still not want to concede anything to their nearest neighbours 'down the road'.

This should be a highly competitive, entertaining match involving two very evenly matched sides. But with much more important fixtures to come, most Monarchs fans will just be hoping their team comes through the match unscathed.

Likely line-ups:

SCOTWASTE MONARCHS: Ryan Fisher, Matthew Wethers, Kevin Wolbert, Kalle Katajisto, Andrew Tully, Ashley Morris, William Lawson.

BERWICK BANDITS: Adrian Rymel, Marcin Rempala, Paul Clews, Michal Makovsky, Lee Complin, Jade Mudgway, Derek Sneddon.