With no victory – in 5 attempts – over our dearest speedway rivals so far this season, the Western Commercial Tigers will treat this Sunday’s latest opportunity as a cup final.
Whilst the fortunes of both clubs this season result in each being found at opposite ends of the Premier League table, the Tigers believe that their recently strengthened and freshly focused side can, at long last, rise to Sunday’s occasion and rescue some semblance of pride and long awaited achievement and confidence for our long suffering fans.
With the home side having a meeting now under their belts around an Ashfield track which has undergone some track surface remediation work, this should better prepare the riders to come out fighting against an Edinburgh side which will, again, start as favourites to continue their Scottish scene dominance in 2013.
The single area of action which the home camp will look to make the most of on Sunday is their starting. Too often in recent meetings the Tigers have made life harder for themselves by giving that early advantage to their faster trapping rivals. With Ashfield expected to, once again, be grippy and quick on Sunday, it is paramount that the Tigers compete from the tapes. Tigers will certainly, as in our league encounter last month, not wish to allow the Monarchs to quickly get ahead and find ourselves chasing the meeting from the off.
Edinburgh have the benefit of knowing that all their riders race Ashfield well, and that average independent they will also have strength at reserve should one of their top 5 misfire. To demonstrate the point the Monarchs will travel to Glasgow with skipper Derek Sneddon as a potent reserve.
Full line-ups on Sunday are:
Glasgow: Joe Screen, Dakota North, Henning Bager, Anders Thomsen, James Grieves, Joey Ringwood, Joe Jacobs
Edinburgh: Craig Cook, Max Fricke, Theo Pijper, Jozsef Tabaka, Claus Vissing, Mitchell Davey, Derek Sneddon
If Tigers are to, at long last gain some success over their rivals, they must again look for another solid, but overall improved, points contribution from all quarters of the side.
Tigers do have the points potential in our new look side, we just have to make sure that we do all the simple things well and avoid throwing away points against a team who will not ask twice to take advantage.
One key contest on Sunday, and one which may in itself go a long way to determine if Tigers can come out on top, will be as to whether any riders in red & blue helmets can finish ahead of Monarch’s No.1 Craig Cook. Certainly he is considered as a big scalp these days, and that in itself will drive on the Glasgow riders to try and lower his colours.
The meeting will round off this year’s Spring Trophy fixture between both clubs, with the Monarchs 59-31 up from the first leg staged on 5th April.
Whilst an aggregate turnaround is not at all on the cards, a home win by any margin will deservedly be viewed as a notable success in a troubled season for Glasgow, and go some way to arresting the miserable run of results stretching back to early May.
We need to start climbing the ladder to success at some point, with your support let’s have a real go at starting on Sunday afternoon.
A reminder too that tickets for the club’s fund raising Sports Dinner are now available for purchase, and can be collected/issued on Sunday – click here for further details.
PS – Tigers went down by 37-53 at fellow strugglers Sheffield last night