PREVIEWING EDINBURGH MONARCHS v POOLE PIRATES

The right to determine the group opponents in the SGB Cab Direct Championship play offs will be decided this week as the top two sides complete their regular league programme.

Poole head to Edinburgh for a third attempt, to finalise their fixtures on Wednesday night where a victory would ensure that Oxford would require wins from their final two matches, the first of which is scheduled for Tuesday night when they host Scunthorpe.
If the Cheetahs complete their 100% home record they would move back to the top of the table, a point clear of the Pirates leaving the league’s newest team having to get a result at Glasgow on Friday night.
Former world champion Gary Havelock will go into his twenty second managerial meeting with the Pirates seeking his eleventh victory on Wednesday and what would be a third triumph over Edinburgh and certainly looking to get the Pirates off to a start similar to that of their first effort, when they were leading 21-6 after just five heats. 
Poole promoter Dan Ford though acknowledges that “what has gone on before means nothing” adding “we have got fifteen heats left and we just need to outscore Edinburgh over those heats. That will put the pressure back on Oxford, assuming of course that they don’t slip up on Tuesday. I believe that we can go to Edinburgh and do the job but we mustn’t forget that Edinburgh are still trying to cement their place in the play-off and Wednesday will be the first of three home matches they have this week. Only last week they went to Plymouth and sneaked a valuable away win So, it is going to be a test for us but one that I know our boys will be up for.”
Edinburgh go into the meeting without the services of Craig Cook and should they operate rider replacement for him then the four programmed rides for their number one could be covered by any member of the side. The Pirates remain unchanged in terms of personnel but, positionally, Anders Rowe resumes the number two racing position and Kyle Newman drops to reserve under the September averages.

Teams:
Edinburgh: 1 Rider Replacement or Guest 2 Lasse Fredriksen 3 Kye Thomson 4 Michele ‘Paco’ Castagna 5 Josh Pickering (Capt) 6 Dayle Wood 7 Bastian Borke Team manager John Campbell
Poole: 1 Richard Lawson 2 Anders Rowe 3 Ben Cook 4 Zach Cook 5 Steve Worrall (Capt) 6 Kyle Newman 7 Joe Thompson Team manager Gary Havelock
Photo Credit Jack Cupido