BIGGEST WIN OF THE SEASON

The Scotwaste Monarchs scored their biggest win of the season tonight when they defeated Glasgow 62-30, and moved into second place in the Premier League. We are three points behind Workington with three matches in hand.

Whilst Craig Cook always catches the eye, for once he was slightly upstaged tonight as Jozsef Tabaka gave his sharpest display of the season in scoring 15 points. Craig acknowledged this by slowing in the closing yards of heat 15 to give Jozsef his full maximum.

Craig himself actually fell off in heat 1, though he rode unbeaten in his remaining races. He admitted "I'm always trying things I shouldn't in that first race. Maybe I'll learn one day."

Max Fricke, Theo Pijper and Claus Vissing would also plead guilty to having one unproductive race, though overall the team was in excellent form.

Fricke really caught the eye with some excellent moves off the second bend, and he totalled paid 12 in his final home match at reserve for the time being.

Amazing to think that maximum man Tabaka moves down to reserve after tomorrow!

It was definitely a bad night for the Tigers, whose three highest average riders (Screen, Grieves and Compton) totalled a disappointing 11 between them. They had to look to their two Danes Henning Bager and Jonas Raun for some consolation, Bager hitting double figures and Raun taking their only race win in heat 8.

The best moment of a one-sided match came in heat 14 when young guns Fricke and Tabaka chased the early leader Andre Compton. They were impatient to get to the front but it took just over a lap before they both went through simultaneously.

Monarchs now head for Rye House for another important away match. The Rockets themselves just missed an away win at Scunthorpe tonight.

Edinburgh Monarchs v Glasgow Tigers

Glasgow Tigers make their third visit of the season to Armadale on Friday (7.30), and having come away empty-handed on both previous occasions, they will be expecting their re-vamped team to do much better this time.

It's been a difficult baptism for the new Glasgow promotion with a string of home defeats and some fearful beatings on the road. Now they have a bit more strength throughout the side but of course they will be meeting a Monarchs side who are back to full strength for the first time in a while.

Having claimed the track records at both the Scotwaste Arena and Ashfield Stadium in the past week, Craig Cook will be confident of outscoring Glasgow's soon-to-be-retiring captain Joe Screen, but he may be forgiven for hoping he doesn't have to begin his night from Gate 4 again.

Edinburgh's captain and hopefully nowhere-near-retiring testimonal man, Derek Sneddon, lines up opposite one of Glasgow's recent signings, 23-year-old Jonas Raun from Denmark who last rode in the UK for Newcastle and Belle Vue in 2007/08 and who impressed at Ashfield recently.

Theo Pijper will be hoping to get back to his previous great form after a few troubled weeks. His opposing No.3 for the Tigers is another Dane, 32-year-old Henning Bager who first rode for half a season at Glasgow 20 years ago before moving on and only coming back last year.

Jozsef Tabaka is another Monarchs rider who is hoping to recapture some of his early season high scoring, but it won't be easy this week against fresh-from-retirement 36-year-old Andre Compton from Yorkshire who spent his best years at Sheffield when he won the PLRC and a Scottish Open.

The box-office draw on this occasion has to be the mouth-watering clash between the two No.5's, Edinburgh's mercurial Claus Vissing who is still to fully master the Armadale circuit and Glasgow's proudly competitive James Grieves, another rider sliding towards retirement.

It's former Glasgow reserve versus new Glasgow reserve at No.6 where Mitchell Davey is hopefully getting back to fitness after his broken wrist. His heat 2 opponent is 24-year-old Joey Ringwood from Australia who has impressed a lot at times on his first two visits to Armadale.

Max Fricke must still be one of the best signings of the season, if not the very best. At only 17-years-old, he looks as though he has been racing in the Premier League for much longerthan just half a season. He'll have to work hard though against ambitious 19-year-old Joe Jacobs who travels up from Ipswich every week.

So there are enough imponderables to make the scoreline as hard as ever to predict. Monarchs have stuttered and stumbled when the track hasn't been to their liking, but they're equally likely to suddenly produce a devastating team performance, as they've also done several times.

As for Glasgow, they have nothing to lose and things can surely only get better. The Tigers' management have shown they aren't afraid to make changes if riders aren't producing the goods, so the visitors will be hungry and hoping to catch the Monarchs on an off-night.

The odds have to be on a home win but in this unpredictable season, anything is possible. There are always the tactical rides which can easily turn the tide of a match and keep the scores close. But having lost a point on Redcar this week, the blue and gold brigade will have eyes only on all three points. Tapes up 7.30 sharp.

Likely line-ups:

EDINBURGH SCOTWASTE MONARCHS: Craig Cook, Derek Sneddon (capt.), Theo Pijper, Jozsef Tabaka, Claus Vissing, Mitchell Davey, Max Fricke.

GLASGOW WESTERN COMMERCIAL TIGERS: Joe Screen(capt.), Jonas Raun, Henning Bager, Andre Compton, James Grieves, Joey Ringwood, Joe Jacobs.