Edinburgh Monarchs v Glasgow Tigers

This was a big step forward for Glasgow, overturning the old order at least for the time being, and in a way that no-one could argue with.

They led by six points after two races, including the third successive 5-1 loss for Edinburgh in heat 1, and although Edinburgh turned it round to a 32-28 lead by heat 10, Glasgow kept the pressure on and won with a bit to spare in the end.

A bit of a sub-plot to the meeting was the dominance, especially in the latter stages, of gates 2 and 4. This is not a normal feature of Armadale meetings but certainly had a bearing here. Over the final 7 heats these gates took 29 points to 11.

The happiest man afterwards was probably Richard Lawson, who had by far his best meeting on this track and was only beaten twice in six rides – that’s the times he wasn’t on gate 2 or 4.

Aaron Summers, who had an unlucky engine failure in heat 10, and guest Richie Worrall gave powerful support, and there was a stack of points from reserve. Victor Palovaara started strongly, and as he faded James Sarjeant came more into the picture.

Sarjeant was pulled back twice for fliers, and probably should have been in heat 10 also, though Sam Masters overhauled him in that one.

The home top men weren’t as dominant as they usually are, in a fair measure due to those gates (Wolbert and Masters were beaten once each off a favourable gate, Cook and Sedgmen didn’t lose).

Erik Riss continues to develop well, and his win in the rerun heat 8 was another good one (off gate 2). However it was a tough night for Rob Branford and Max Clegg. Branford took a tumble in heat 8, having passed Palovaara he then pressed Lawson but clipped his back wheel.

It was a very competitive match raced in a good atmosphere, but the racing could have been better. The track was far too slick and those unbalanced gates played too large a part in things.

Edinburgh Monarchs v Glasgow Tigers

Having beaten the new-look Glasgow Tigers twice at home by similar scores in April, the Edinburgh Monarchs will be hoping for more of the same as they defend an unbeaten record at Armadale, while the Tigers will in turn be hoping to ignite a Premier League Championship challenge.

Unbelievably however, Monarchs will once again be facing a six-man side due to the unfortunate accident to Glasgow's No.4, Kozza Smith, at Ashfield last Sunday which has left him with devastating injuries which will keep him out of the sport for at least the rest of this season.

Another Tigers absentee will be Nick Morris who will be in the Australian squad on Saturday night for the World Team Cup Final in Vojens, Denmark where the Aussies will face Denmark, Sweden and Poland. Nick should be back at Ashfield in time for Sunday's return match.

Thus a serious re-shuffle sees last year's Monarchs' hero, Stevie Worrall stepping in as a guest at No.1 for the Tigers in place of Morris where he will pit his nerve against a rider he shared a podium with so many times last year, the busy and hard charging Sam Masters.

Following a flawless 16-point maximum riding at No.3 against Scunthorpe last Sunday, Richard Lawson is moved into the No.2 position on Friday where he lines up opposite Rob Branford who has just moved up from Monarchs No.7 position. Hardly an even match-up.

Glasgow's No.5 and double-figure scorer from last Sunday, Aaron Summers, moves up to the No.3 position where the former Monarch faces Kevin Wolbert who has improved his equipment and upped his game so much this year, following a disappointing season in the stripes.

So for the second week in a row, the visiting side uses rider replacement at No.4 and due to Kozza's average, this looks to be a potentially weak area for Tigers unless their lower order step up to the challenge of matching Monarchs' mercurial second string, Justin Sedgmen.

With all the riding order changes, the Tigers also look vulnerable at No.5 where their regular No.2, French rider Dimitri Berge will surely find it hard to match the Monarchs skipper and frequent scourge of the Tigers, Craig Cook, in spite of his recent dip in his consistently high standards.

Down at No.6 it's Monarchs who look especially vulnerable since Glasgow's Swedish reserve, Victor Palovaara, still on a 3-point average, has way outscored Max Clegg on his two previous trips to Armadale in Tigers' colours this year. This match-up could be crucial to the result.

The match-up at No.7 is much more of an unknown quantity since Tigers' other 3-point reserve, James Sarjeant, who gets Elite League experience with Coventry, missed the last two Armadale matches. This is a big chance for Monarchs' Erik Riss to really step up in his biggest test so far.

So it's not quite the match everyone would have wanted due to the absence of two of Glasgow's most important riders. But in view of their enforced changes, someone at Glasgow has been doing a lot of tactical head-scratching to try to come up with a winning Armadale formula at last.

In the longer term, Glasgow have a real problem in finding a replacement for Kozza Smith and the absence for one night only of Nick Morris is a significant blow. But for this match they have made their best possible efforts to cover with a potential heavy points scorer in Stevie Worrall.

Expect the racing and the scores to be as close as you've seen all season. A bit of luck, good or bad, either way could decide the outcome. Edinburgh will want to hold on to all three points and Glasgow will not want to settle for second best, even by only taking a point from this match.

With the weather forecast set fair and a huge crowd anticipated, this has all the makings of the best Scottish derby match for years. Is it life or death to both sets of supporters? In the words of Bill Shankly: “It's more important than that."

Will Monarchs make their home advantage count or will Glasgow's tactical calls make the difference? The eyes of the entire Premier League will be on Scottish speedway at its best. Make sure you're one of those who'll be able to say: “I was there”. Tapes up at 7.30 sharp.

Likely line-ups:

EDINBURGH BORDER ROOFING MONARCHS: Sam Masters, Rob Branford, Kevin Wolbert, Justin Sedgmen, Craig Cook (capt.), Max Clegg, Erik Riss.

GLASGOW ALLIED VEHICLES TIGERS: Stevie Worrall, Richard Lawson, Aaron Summers (capt.), rider replacement for Kozza Smith, Dimitri Berge, Victor Palovaara, James Sarjeant.