Edinburgh Monarchs v Newcastle Diamonds

Another Friday night, another big challenge. This week it's the return of the Newcastle Diamonds who are still smarting after going out of the KO Cup over two legs to the Monarchs when they thought they were robbed of points by the referee in the Armadale leg.

Provided all goes well at Redcar on Thursday, Edinburgh should be at full strength but Newcastle will operate rider replacement for the injured Christian Henry. This should not in any way weaken the Diamonds who know they can win at the Scotwaste Arena and will come out with all guns blazing for valuable Premier League points.

Craig Cook makes a welcome return to Armadale after being caught out by the King's Lynn track in his first ever appearance for the GB World Team Cup side. Once again he faces the Diamonds popular captain and talismanic No.1, Stuart Robson from Sunderland, a former Coventry and Lakeside star who has returned to the Diamonds' colours.

It's the Edinburgh skipper Derek Sneddon who will be looking in vain for an opposing No.2 because that's where the rider replacement for Christian Henry operates. This means Derek could be facing any or all of Tully, Lindgren, Worrall or Kerr, although thankfully not all at the same time.

Derek Sneddon's expensive run of bad luck from earlier in the year seems to have transferred to Theo Pijper of late. Let's hope he has shaken it off and he can get back to top form, because his contest with opposing No.3 and Armadale track expert, Andrew Tully should be well worth the admission money.

Now that Jozsef Tabaka has dropped back to reserve, it's a much quicker than expected return to No.4 for the rapidly emerging talent that is Max Fricke. His opposite number is Ludvig Lindgren, the younger of Fast Freddie from Sweden who in his six-years in the UK has ridden for Wolves, Birmingham, Berwick and now Newcastle.

Monarchs' No.5, Claus Vissing has resumed making a telling impact on the scoring charts and if he is riding well, the team does well. This week he faces the young, up-and-coming Merseyside rider, Richie Worrall whose sensational scores have been a huge factor in Newcastle's fortunes in only his second full Premier League season.

Mitchell Davey is back in the side at No.6 but Monarchs will be looking for him to get out of the traps quicker and rediscover his undoubted scoring touch. He faces the nomadic former show jumper from Maldon in Essex, Chris Schramm who has been in a variety of teams who have won most of the Premier League honours.

Last but not least, there's an intriguing match-up at No 7 where Jozsef Tabaka returns to the reserve berth after only just mastering the art of riding at No.4. He faces former moto-cross rider, 23-year-old Lewis Kerr from King's Lynn who has been scoring well recently, so this match-up will be crucial to the destination of the Premier League points.

Last Friday, Monarchs showed what they could do if the track was to their liking and they could out-gate their opponents more often than not. They will be hoping for more of the same this week in order to prove that the previous meeting of the clubs when the Diamonds won by a point was a one-off freak result.

On the other hand, expect the Diamonds to have a real go right from the start, so it's more important than ever that Craig Cook can make as good a start to a home meeting in heat 1 as he has in his staggeringly successful heat 15 record. This could be another cliffhanger so be there on Friday (7.30 sharp) to roar your Monarchs to all three points.

Likely line-ups:

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

NEWCASTLE SAPPHIRE ENGINEERING DIAMONDS: Stuart Robson (capt.), rider replacement for Christian Henry, Andrew Tully, Ludvig Lindgren, Richie Worrall, Chris Schramm, Lewis Kerr.