It was a night of huge highs and lows for Glasgow as they beat Edinburgh in the first leg of a tense Premier League Championship Final tonight
The Tigers lost their skipper Aaron Summers to injury following a horror crash in heat seven of the contest, which put them down to just five riders with Kauko Nieminen already sidelined.
It had been a nervy start from the home side before that point, as they committed three tapes offences in the first five heats.
Edinburgh had their own troubles as reserve Rob Branford also crashed out the meeting, before Sam Masters missed the two minutes in heat four and was forced to go off 15 metres.
The Tigers battled on heroically and even though they had to concede a 5-0 in heat seven, they stood their ground with a 5-1 via Nick Morris and Victor Palovaara in heat nine, and then a fantastic 4-2 in heat 11 when the in-form James Sarjeant was awarded the win after Craig Cook crashed while trying to hunt him down.
The final four heats were shared to give Glasgow a 48-41 win, which was much more than they could have anticipated after Summers’ withdrawal.
After the meeting, the Glasgow captain – who was forced to travel to hospital – confirmed he’d injured his hand and was having checks done on his neck.
He has been ruled out of tomorrow’s second leg at Armadale – for which the Tigers must now find a guest – but said: “I’ll be there to support the boys.”
Tomorrow’s meeting starts at 7pm and further team news will follow in due course.
Tigers scorers: Richard Lawson 13, James Sarjeant 12+1, Nick Morris 9+3, Victor Palovaara 7+1 Hynek Stichauer 4+1, Aaron Summers 3 (withdrawn), Kauko Nieminen R/R.