RICKY ASHWORTH believes miracles do happen in speedway.
The Sheffield Tigers captain will probably have to produce one if his side are to succeed in stopping Edinburgh Scotwaste Monarchs reaching the Premier League KO Cup quarter-finals.
Monarchs visit Owlerton tonight for the second leg of their firs
t-round tie and they appear to be in pole position after a hefty 59-31 triumph in the first match at Armadale against the Yorkshiremen.
Ashworth has good reason not to dwell on that encounter after enduring a mechanical horror show which he admitted afterwards has probably cost Sheffield their chance of making further progress in the competition.
"The match was a complete nightmare for me," he said. "I couldn't get any of my machinery to work. And, when I jumped on my spare bike, that wouldn't go either! It is fair to say we are facing an uphill struggle to pull back our 28-point deficit.
"But speedway can be a very strange sport and miracles do happen occasionally."
Ashworth, pictured in action below, is also aware that Monarchs came very close to causing an upset at Owlerton in their Premier Trophy visit to the Steel City earlier in the season. "Monarchs suffered from a load of gremlins that night," he recalled. "Otherwise they might well have beaten us. They probably thought they were very unlucky having not won the match."
Ashworth added: "So we know what Monarchs are capable of. We need to make sure we get some big points on the board early on and see what happens from there."
Yet Tigers are without Ritchie Hawkins, who broke his wrist at Berwick Bandits recently. They will use the rider replacement facility in his absence and, with Josh Auty in sparkling form at reserve and possibly getting seven rides, Sheffield won't be unduly weakened.
Promoter Neil Machin said: "Ritchie could be out of action for at least two months, which is a blow. Ironically, he was probably having his best ride in a Sheffield race-jacket when the accident happened.
"It is a complicated break and we are looking at our options with regards to perhaps signing someone to replace him.
But there will be no knee jerk reactions.
"Our rider replacement cover is good in the short term."
Sheffield have wobbled like jellies at Owlerton a few times this year, but still pack a punch as they showed by topping the 60-point mark against Berwick a week ago.
Monarchs enter the contest knowing that short of something cataclysmic happening, their quarter-final place looks assured.
Andrew Tully, who was Monarchs' hero with 16 points at Scunthorpe Scorpions on Monday, said: "We are not going into the match thinking we are already through simply because we are defending a big lead.
"We want to win and showed in our earlier Trophy visit that we had Sheffield in trouble.
"It was only the fact we enjoyed so much bad luck that cost us the match. We simply need to consolidate our lead and not do anything stupid. It's all about qualification."
Monarchs skipper Matthew Wethers, who wasn't entirely happy with his five-point return at Scunthorpe, echoed Tully and said: "The KO Cup eluded us last season and that's why we want to do well in this year's competition.
"We turned in a solid team performance in the first leg and we can't undo all that hard work. It would be a disaster if we let things slip."
Although Thomas Jonasson will be absent when Monarchs face Glasgow at home on Friday, he lines up against Sheffield tonight and the new Nordic Under-21 champion will be keen to keep up his impressive scoring rate away from home.
Team-mate Ryan Fisher, meanwhile, will be keen to atone for his poor score at Scunthorpe.
The Californian scored just five which isn't what you expect from your No.1 rider.
And, despite Fisher's promise that he would be a more mellow performer in 2009, he's been just the opposite.
His disqualification tally is mounting and, while some of his exclusions haven't been his fault, he is costing himself money and, more crucially, costing Monarchs points.
The full article contains 705 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
