AFTER a glorious 55-38 victory at Redcar Bears in the Knockout Cup last night, Edinburgh Monarchs speedway promoter John Campbell's declared: "We can do no wrong at the moment."
The quarter-final first-leg win on Teesside puts the Monarchs firmly in the driving seat for tonight's second leg at Armadale. And, barring something cataclysmic, Monarchs have booked their place in the semi-finals and a corker of a clash against Wo
rkington Comets.
Redcar had been expected to at least win their home engagement but they simply didn't have the scoring firepower to trouble a Monarchs team who believe they can win at every away track they visit. Redcar only had five race wins and three of them were provided by top scorer James Grieves, whose 15-point total included a tactical six-point win.
Bears skipper Gary Havelock surprisingly failed to win a single race and his seven-point return was a major disappointment for the local support.
Monarchs' hero was Ryan Fisher, who picked up a whopping 16-point haul from six outings. He was beaten only once, in heat 14, by Bears reserve ace Josh Auty.
Fisher, who also roared to double figures at Scunthorpe on Monday, is definitely on a roll right now and Campbell puts it down to confidence.
"Ryan was outstanding", said Campbell. "And I'm sure he'll do just as well at Armadale tonight.
"A lot of it is confidence. Ryan hasn't been confident about what he was doing before. Now he is. He wasn't as exciting to watch as normal but only because he didn't need to take as many chances as he has done in some matches."
Campbell said that he wasn't in the least surprised that Monarchs overturned the Bears, whose heads will almost certainly be down ahead of their trip to the Lothian Arena.
"We are going in to every match believing we can actually win. So many of our team are capable of scoring points. I would like to think that our friends at Sky Sports would actually notice that the top team in the Premier League is Edinburgh and not Somerset or Workington. This should make people sit up and take notice. At the moment we can do no wrong."
Aussie Matthew Wethers was Monarchs' second-highest scorer with 12 and he reckons Redcar will fight every inch of the way to turn things around.
Said Wethers: "Armadale produces good racing and everyone who comes here can have a go. We certainly can't relax. We can only lose it."
On his own performance which saw him win two races, Wethers added: "I felt I did okay. I had a couple of races where I could have made a pass but didn't quite make it which was a tad disappointing. But the whole team did well. We knew it would be tough but everything worked out well for us."
Monarchs were always in control and were 14 points up after Fisher and Aaron Summers, who had major machine problems, stormed to a 5-1 in heat eight.
King's Lynn's Tomas Topinka, guesting for the absent William Lawson, scored eight but got Monarchs off to a flying start by defeating Havelock in the opening race. He also teamed up with Wethers for a 5-1 in heat 13.
And Andrew Tully, another Monarch on fire right now, also defeated Havelock from the back in heat six.
Although Redcar snatched a 6-3 advantage in the ninth race, it was a last throw of the dice to thwart their visitors and it didn't work.
Redcar defeated Monarchs in both the Premier Trophy and the League last season at Armadale but Monarchs are different animals now.
Redcar: Grieves 15, Procter 8, Havelock 7, Auty 4, Giffard 3, Keskinen 1, Bugeja 0.
Monarchs: Fisher 16, Wethers 12, Tully 11, Topinka 8, Summers 6, Sneddon 2.
The full article contains 652 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
