Glasgow Tigers v Edinburgh Monarchs

It's the second of our four scheduled visits to Ashfield this season, the previous visit in the Premier Trophy ending in a five point defeat which ultimately wasn't enough for the bonus point. A five point defeat this time, however, would spell success because we take with us a six point lead from the first leg which was curtailed by the weather to 12 races.

The Glasgow heat leader trio last time scored 35 points between them and, with Kauko Nieminen returning to the Tigers' team after his dislocated shoulder, a similar return can be expected from them. The key to an aggregate victory is therefore to restrict the Glasgow second strings and reserves to the bare minimum which we managed to a large degree in that Premier Trophy match. We are likely though to need more than the three race winners we did last time but there are reasons to believe that we can.

Henrik Moller is a much improved rider since his first visit and with experience of the Ashfield track should improve on the 4 point return he managed last time. William Lawson, too, has gone from strength to strength and, if he can make some decent starts, will be a thorn in the Tigers' flesh. Matthew Wethers was extremely unlucky in the Premier Trophy match and his subsequent 10+2 return guesting for Redcar suggests that he will score much more heavily than the 2+1 he scored for us then. Consider too that Rusty Harrison now seems to have shaken off his early season illness and is not only scoring well but making good starts and he should improve on his 9 point return. Sean Stoddart says that he likes the Glasgow track and, after his excellent performance on Friday night, he could be a trump card for us. He can certainly do no worse than Richie Dennis who failed to score for us in Sean's place on our last visit. That just leaves Theo Pijper and Derek Sneddon to repeat their scoring last April to make this a match we can approach with some confidence.

Of course it would be nonsense to assume it will be that easy. We carried a good bit of luck to hold the Tigers to five points last time and were aided greatly by an opportune TR which netted us 8 points in heat 8. The Glasgow reserves have been scoring very heavily round their own track and Lee Dicken and David McAllan too have had improved scores in recent weeks. It has to be said though that Glasgow have ridden against some fairly weak teams in recent weeks which has boosted their scoring. It's up to us to make sure we are not another of them.

There is a suspicion that the Glasgow reserves and Danny Bird in particular rely very heavily on making fast starts. It will be interesting to see what they make of things should we make the gate on them and that is where the team must concentrate maximum effort. The Ashfield track has apparently had a lot of work done on it recently to smooth out some of the bumps but it remains to be seen whether that has improved the racing surface and what effect it has on the racing. All in all, there may not be much at stake in this match but it should nonetheless be another intriguing and hard fought battle between the two sides. We must hope that Theo and Henrik return safe and sound from their gruelling weekend of action on the continent unscathed to help the team again show Glasgow that there are no easy meetings between the two sides.

Assessing the team's chances is difficult because there are so many factors involved. The first is the state of the Ashfield track on what may well be a dry afternoon. It has been a constant problem for the track staff to get the watering right as it is with any track operating in the afternoon because there is a tendency for it to dry out quickly in certain circumstances.

The second is the various battles between the parts of the two teams. Starting at reserve, Glasgow have fallen on their feet having recruited the fast gating Robert Ksiezak after it was clear that Adam Roynon would not be fully fit for the start of the season. With James Cockle producing good scores round his home track we need to make sure that we are not heavily outscored in this department. That task is down to Derek and Sean.

In the second string department, Lee Dicken has not excelled so far but David McAllan produced an excellent nine points against Stoke last week. It will be up to Matthew and Henrik to make sure that they match anything scored by the Tigers in this department.

Up front Glasgow have benefited a lot from Kauko Nieminen's early season form. He is clearly at home on the Ashfield track and could be a real problem. Conversely Danny Bird has not been the force expected although that seems to have been put down to engine problems. Shane Parker is as consistent as ever round his own patch and it will not be easy living with the scoring of the Tigers' top trio.

Rusty Harrison has been one of the few riders who can match the best round the Glasgow track and we can only hope that he has shaken off the effects of his chest infection so that he and his bikes are in top form. Theo, too, has had many excellent rides there while William's brilliant surge of form could well cause the Tigers problems.