Fired-up Monarchs bidding to silence southern snipers

EDINBURGH Scotwaste Monarchs co-promoter John Campbell today hit out at southern critics who have already written the Capital speedway side off as possible title contenders.

Yet Monarchs will go top of the Premier League if they defeat Reading Racers at Armadale tonight and pick up away wins at Rye House and Mildenhall this weekend. Monarchs were predicted to finish tenth out of 17 by Speedway Star's nationwide team of correspondents before the season began. Reading were tipped to finish fifth.

Campbell is slightly annoyed that Monarchs, who have only lost one match in 12, have been so readily dismissed as possible champions.

He said: "I was watching Sky's live match between the Isle of Wight and Reading on Tuesday and their pundit Kelvin Tatum went through the Premier League and told viewers who the favourites are for the title.

"He didn't include Edinburgh which was interesting to hear. I still believe we are one of the better teams in the league. Whether we'll be one of the dominant ones is difficult to tell at this early stage of the campaign.

"One of the things that has annoyed me is that outwith our own area, perhaps outwith our own fans, maybe Glasgow fans as well, also realise we have a pretty good team. But as soon as you move further down south, as Kelvin Tatum said, he hasn't noticed us. We've won all these matches and only lost one, and scored at least 45 in every meeting, yet he isn't aware of us!"

Asked why Monarchs, who lifted the championship for the first time in their history in 2003, have been deemed to finish in the bottom half of the table by the experts, Campbell added: "I think the people concerned didn't look carefully enough at our team. From our point of view we realised the potential our squad had.

"The experts didn't consider for instance that William Lawson, having ridden in the Elite League in 2007, would come back a better and more determined rider in the Premier League." Reading, who were hammered 58-34 in front of the cameras on the Isle of Wight, only defeated their hosts 46-44 courtesy of a last heat 5-1 round their own Smallmead arena 24 hours earlier.

Yet despite that scare at home the Berkshire side are considered to be Monarchs' trickiest opponents so far at the Lothian Arena.

Campbell, below, said: "Reading have had a few injuries at reserve which has affected them but they have the best rider in the league in Ulrich Ostergaard. All their racing so far has been done down south, so it's hard to tell what they will do up here."

Monarchs haven't been placed under undue pressure at Armadale yet and Campbell was more than satisfied with his side's impressive success against King's Lynn Stars seven days ago.

He only had a couple of gripes, saying: "It would be nice to run with seven riders every week. And it would be nice if Aaron (Summers) could find some confidence on his home track. I'm sure it will come but he's had much better matches away from home than he's had at Armadale. Once Aaron gets the hang of the track and gets used to it, he'll be fine. I don't have any concerns at all about him."

And while team-mate Ryan Fisher continues to struggle with his problematic bike set-ups, Campbell added: "Ryan's own expectations are very high and he doesn't want to lose to anybody. He thinks he is better than anybody. When he's got that in mind, unless he then scores a maximum, he'll always be unhappy with his performance."

If Monarchs can win all three of their fixtures, the whole of the Premier League will sit up and take notice. But Campbell is a realist, and insists: "I'm not sure about Rye House. We don't have a good record there. But Mildenhall's record suggests we'll beat them. However, you can't read too much into that because Mildenhall have lost to everybody except King's Lynn, amazingly."

First priority, however, is to send Reading packing. The Racers, who have been drawn against Monarchs in the Premier Trophy semi finals, have booked in Glasgow's Ross Brady as a guest for the sidelined Danny Warwick.