Armadale showdown on Friday

NEWS Thursday 5th September 2024, 9:40am

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The Stellar Monarchs face Scottish rivals Glasgow this Friday evening in a match which means a lot to both teams. Monarchs have the limited but important ambition of getting off the foot of the table while Tigers hope to keep their Playoff ambitions alive prior to a Sunday clash with Oxford in which they will probably need to take three points – as long a they have secured three at Armadale.

So it's all to play for, and both teams have changes from their regular 1-7. Monarchs are more seriously inconvenienced with the absence through injury of Armadale specialists Kye Thomson and Justin Sedgmen, and have the Thompson twins Dan and Joe guesting in their place. Glasgow have Leon Flint away for the SGB2 Under-21 event replaced by Ben Barker, and injured no. 7 Jason Garrad is replaced by Max Perry.

This is the restaging of the match abandoned on 9th August after 7 heats, with Monarchs 9 points to the good at that stage. The match had been delayed after a crash in heat 4.

Team manager Alex Harkess calls on his team for their best possible performance. "We will again have two guests and we will be depending on them doing as well as the riders they are replacing. Whether they do or not time will tell, but the rest of the riders in the team, the other five, we need them to win races and score points and keep us in front the whole time. We don't want to be chasing our tails from heat 2 onwards.

"A nice day would be encouraging but it is up to the team to perform, and as it's our last match of the season it is crucial that we finish on a high. We've not had very many high points this season. As I've said over the years, winning is the same habit as losing and if you get in to the wrong habit it is very difficult to change. We need to finish on a high and we must win this match."

Friday's match will be Live Streamed for those who cannot attend, details on www.edinburghmonarchs.co.uk.

FRIDAY'S MATCH:

Friday 6th September: Edinburgh Monarchs v Glasgow Tigers (Championship), Armadale, 7:30pm

STELLAR MONARCHS: Josh Pickering, Joe Thompson, Lasse Fredriksen, Paco Castagna (Capt.), Dan Thompson, Max James, Connor Coles.

GLASGOW ALLIED VEHICLES TIGERS: Chris Harris (Capt.), Jack Smith, Anders Rowe, James Pearson, Ben Barker, Matic Ivacic, Max Perry.

The Championship match will be followed by a Northern Junior League match between Armadale Angels and Ashfield Giants.

Full Result Details