Edinburgh duly wrapped up the League Cup after easily defending their 21 point lead from the first leg on Friday night.
Any thoughts the home side had of maybe taking advantage of a weakened Monarchs side was swiftly halted with an opening burst which saw the visitors win 7 of the first 8 heats, opening up a 30-18 lead.
Tigers were, not for the first time in a derby, this season, regularly beaten out of the starts by their swifter gating opponents and whilst not being far behind them on occasions, could find no grip to pass them.
Early highlights were all Edinburgh, with Rob Branford, Erik Riss and Craig Cook all passing the home men early on in their respective races, although both Richard Lawson and Kauko Nieminen did likewise to Fernando Garcia in heat 6.
Tigers started their fightback with successive 4-2s through heats 9 to 11, with Nieminen almost catching Riss in heat 10 and Aaron Summers defeating Cook rather easily in heat 11. Monarchs packed the minor places to share the next 2 until a home 5-1 in heat 14 set up a last heat decider.
Heat 15 saw the Monarchs gate on a 4-2 but Cook appeared to clip Nick Morris coming out of the 4th bend trying an inside pass and was excluded. Summers made no mistake in the re-run with Sam Masters finishing second to draw the match.
This tie was over after the first leg and the hangover from that match seemed to affect the home side as they were never in it in the first half. Edinburgh doing a professional job to tie it up mathematically, with Masters’s second place in heat 9.
It was to Tigers credit that they fought back to draw the meeting although how much of that was due to Edinburgh easing off is open to debate.
Both sides have an important week ahead and the Tigers will be glad to be back to a full 7 man side with the returning Kauko Nieminen looking quicker in every ride and Nick Morris having his best home match since May!
However Glasgow will have to improve their away form if they want to join the Monarchs in the play off semi-finals.
Glasgow Tigers 45 Edinburgh Monarchs 45 Premier League Cup Final 2nd leg Edinburgh win 100-79 on aggregate 27/9/2015 Glasgow Tigers Richard Lawson R 2 3 0 5 Kauko Nieminen 1 1* 2 1 5 + 1 Nick Morris 2 2 3 3 1 11 James Sarjeant 0 0 3 3 Aaron Summers 2 3 3 3 3 14 Victor Palovaara 2 0 1 1 0 2* 6 + 1 Hynek Stichauer 1* 0 0 1 + 1 Edinburgh Monarchs Craig Cook 3 3 2 2 X 10 Justin Sedgmen 2* 1 1* 3 0 7 + 2 Kevin Wolbert R/R 0 Erik Riss 3 2 2 2 0 9 Sam Masters 1 3 3 2 1* 2 12 + 1 Fernando Garcia 0 0 0 0 Robert Branford 3 1 1 0 1* 1 7 + 1 Heat 1 - Craig Cook ; Justin Sedgmen ; Kauko Nieminen ; Richard Lawson(R) ; (1-5)(1-5) Heat 2 - Robert Branford ; Victor Palovaara ; Hynek Stichauer ; Fernando Garcia ; (3-3)(4-8) Heat 3 - Erik Riss ; Nick Morris ; Sam Masters ; James Sarjeant ; (2-4)(6-12) Heat 4 - Sam Masters ; Aaron Summers ; Robert Branford ; Hynek Stichauer ; (2-4)(8-16) Heat 5 - Craig Cook ; Nick Morris ; Justin Sedgmen ; James Sarjeant ; (2-4)(10-20) Heat 6 - Sam Masters ; Richard Lawson ; Kauko Nieminen ; Fernando Garcia ; (3-3)(13-23) Heat 7 - Aaron Summers ; Erik Riss ; Justin Sedgmen ; Victor Palovaara ; (3-3)(16-26) Heat 8 - Justin Sedgmen ; Kauko Nieminen ; Robert Branford ; Hynek Stichauer ; (2-4)(18-30) Heat 9 - Nick Morris ; Sam Masters ; Victor Palovaara ; Fernando Garcia ; (4-2)(22-32) Heat 10 - Richard Lawson ; Erik Riss ; Kauko Nieminen ; Robert Branford ; (4-2)(26-34) Heat 11 - Aaron Summers ; Craig Cook ; Victor Palovaara ; Justin Sedgmen ; (4-2)(30-36) Heat 12 - (re-run)Nick Morris ; Erik Riss ; Robert Branford ; Victor Palovaara ; (3-3)(33-39) Heat 13 - (re-run)Aaron Summers ; Craig Cook ; Sam Masters ; Richard Lawson ; (3-3)(36-42) Heat 14 - James Sarjeant ; Victor Palovaara ; Robert Branford ; Erik Riss ; (5-1)(41-43) Heat 15 - (2 re-runs)Aaron Summers ; Sam Masters ; Nick Morris ; Craig Cook(X) ; (4-2)(45-45)