Glasgow Tigers v Edinburgh Monarchs

So much has gone right for us this season, it comes as quite a shock when things go wrong. But this was our second successive bad away match, and we have lost Andrew Tully for the season.

To some extent the injury was down to conditions but of course we do have to ride in bad conditions from time to time. If only the grading which followed Andrew?s crash had been done earlier.

There was trouble for Monarchs right from the start. Ryan Fisher fell on the first corner of heat 1, Tully?s crash came in heat 4 and Fisher fell again in heat 5 by which time Monarchs trailed 19-11, with Tigers? guest reserve Jade Mudgway one of the unbeaten home riders.

Tully was of course out of heat 6 but at least William Lawson managed to get ahead of Branney for a second place.

We used Ryan Fisher as rider replacement in heat 7, though we didn?t use the TR and just as well ? Ryan had a bike problem, and Kalle fell off! Ryan limped home for a third and we were shell-shocked at 28-14 down!

The TR was kept back for Matthew in heat 8, which looked a very likely win ? until his bike stalled at the tapes. He was immediately deemed guilty of exceeding 2 minutes and went off 15 metres.

The Tigers led the way with William Lawson trailing, but Matthew did come through to catch Mudgway, which in the circumstances was something of an achievement.

We had the reserves out in heat 9, another Tully heat, and managed to share it as Nick Morris fell.

The rider replacement was also affected by the Tully crash, and we had Ashley Morris take the ride in heat 10 in which Kalle managed to split the Tigers. We were now 16 down.

Ryan switched bikes for heat 11 and at last we saw him back in his normal form, winning easily from Shane Parker.

We used Kalle as rider replacement and the second TR in heat 12, again a race which looked profitable. Prior to the heat Nick Morris had bike problems and in switching to a Grajczonek machine appeared to have well exceeded the two minute allowance. Somehow this wasn?t applied and with kale completely fluffing the gate, he trailed home behind the home pair. Another disaster, now we are 18 behind.

Fisher excelled again in heat 13, easily beating Parker and McGowan, then Kalle finally got a decent start to win heat 14. In this William Lawson had his best ride of the day to hold third, with Tigers? effective guest Mudgway crashing in his attempts to pass.

With another long delay in prospect the match was called off, leaving us with 16 points to pull back after an afternoon which was generally disastrous for us.

Glasgow Tigers v Edinburgh Monarchs

The autumn weather that is disrupting more than speedway means that what was to be the second leg of the Scottish Cup Final now becomes the first leg at Ashfield today (4.00), meaning that Monarchs will know what they have to do in the return leg next Friday night.

Glasgow have had another season of ill-luck and disappointment in spite of tracking some very talented riders and Edinburgh revealed not just a chink in their armour at Sheffield on Thursday night, but a great yawning chasm that Glasgow will hope to exploit.

Ryan Fisher squares up to ex-Swindon team mate Travis McGowan, the 29-year-old Australian who wears the No.1 race jacket due to having edged 0.1 of a point ahead of Joe Screen in the latest set of Tigers averages. This match-up will have a big bearing in both legs.

Last week's Monarchs of the match, Matthew Wethers lines up at No.2 against John Branney, the younger of the Cumbrian speedway racing brothers whose progress has been dogged by injury, this season being no exception. Matty knows the Ashfield track well.

Rider replacement operates at No.3 for Monarchs' Kevin Wolbert, while Glasgow track their young star of the future, Nick Morris from Canberra who at 16 years of age has slotted into the Premier League part way through the season and already has an average approaching 4.5.

No.4 sees the most intriguing match-up between 'Super' Kalle Katajisto and Glasgow's Josh Grajczonek, yet another highly rated Australian who has spent the last three years in the Tigers colours and is still only 20 years old. Who will gate the better?

As always seems to be the case, Andrew Tully seems to have the most difficult match-up at No.5, this week against Glasgow legend Shane Parker, standing in for the injured Joe Screen. Just like Ryan Fisher, Shane loves the edge in these local derbies.

Young Ashley Morris at last faces an opponent at No.6 who is also finding his way in his first Premier League season. Yes, it's another Aussie, Jake Anderson, who replaced Mitchell Davey and has already seen action with four clubs! This pair look evenly matched.

And so to the enigma that is the indisputably talented William Lawson at No.7. His opposite number is Glasgow's wholehearted captain Lee Dicken who has been struggling with injury but always gives 100 per cent and will happily pick off any stragglers.

So it remains to be seen if the Owlerton result was a one-off or whether it affects the confidence of the team who had dominated the season up to that point. One thing is certain, Monarchs cannot afford to throw away the points they gifted to Sheffield.

The Scottish Cup is unlike any other competition and throws up any number of unexpected results. Monarchs have enjoyed a lot of success in Glasgow in recent seasons but Tigers fans will have taken much pleasure from Monarchs recent demise. It will have given their riders a confidence boost too.

With gating likely to play a very big part on a track which neither the Glasgow fans or promotion are entirely happy with, Monarchs will have to be sharp. As the rider match-ups show, this could be a close one and Glasgow have enjoyed a couple of big wins over their Scottish rivals this year.

Likely line-ups:

GLASGOW A-PLANT TIGERS: Travis McGowan, John Branney, Nick Morris, Josh Grajczonek, Shane Parker (guest), Jake Anderson, Lee Dicken (capt.)

SCOTWASTE MONARCHS: Ryan Fisher, Matthew Wethers (capt.), rider replacement for Kevin Wolbert, Kalle Katajisto, Andrew Tully, Ashley Morris, William Lawson.