PREVIEWING: EDINBURGH MONARCHS v POOLE PIRATES

Returning to Armadale, Edinburgh on Friday night, the Poole 'Wessex Marine' Pirates will be looking to continue the form they were showing there earlier this month, before a freak incident forced the abandonment of the SGB Cab Direct Championship between the two clubs.

Since that truncated meeting, which lasted just five completed heats before the incident in heat sixteen that saw a photographer struck by a lamp standard after a bike had flown over the air fence, the Pirates have remained unbeaten in six meetings and now top the table, a position they will maintain outright with a win by any margin.
 
Following a comprehensive overturning of the Monarchs last Sunday at Wimborne Road, the Pirates are well positioned for the minimum of a bonus point with their twenty-eight point advantage, but the Pirates will have the goal of a seventh successive victory to strive for.
 
Poole's northern team manager Gary Havelock said "Obviously it was a huge shame for our visit to Edinburgh to end how it did as we were so well in control. We were set for another 5-1 in heat six and were already leading 21-9 at the time and it would have been difficult for us to have lost it from there. But we go again and just have to get out there and show what we are capable of."
 
The Pirates are unchanged from the side that comfortably won last Sunday against the Monarchs and then again the other Scottish side, Glasgow, on Wednesday whilst Edinburgh are hanging on a fitness report from their number one Craig Cook, who missed the Poole trip. But they will be structured slightly different from the original fixture as Bastian Borke has since achieved an official average which puts him below that of Max Clegg so the pair switch positions.
 
Friday is Poole's final away regular league fixture and they are due to complete their schedule next Wednesday at home to Birmingham, but as assured play-off qualifiers they still have plenty of meetings to follow with four fixtures in the play-off group as a minimum, and if they finish top of their group they would have two legs of the play-off final, whilst they also have the KO Cup final two legs once their opponents are determined.
 
Teams
Edinburgh - 1 Craig Cook (if fit) 2 Max Clegg 3 KyeThomsen 4 Michele 'Paco' Castagna 5 Josh Pickering (Capt) 6 Dayle Wood 7 Bastian Borke - Team manager Alex Harkess
Poole - 1 Richard Lawson 2 Kyle Newman 3 Ben Cook 4 Zach Cook 5 Steve Worrall (Capt) 6 Anders Rowe 7 Joe Thompson - Team manager Gary Havelock