Late collapse proves costly for Monarchs
Glasgow take 10-point first-leg lead
A late collapse from the Edinburgh Monarchs led to a 10 point defeat as they went down 50-40 away to Glasgow on Friday night in the first leg of the Scottish Cup.
There were flashes from most of the Monarchs, with new boy Max Ruml acquitting himself well as the riders geared up for the new speedway season.
Fellow newcomer Joel Andersson struggled and also became the first Monarch to fall foul of the new starting rules as he was excluded in Heat Seven for getting off his bike at the starting gate.
Ricky Wells and Eric Riss led the Monarchs scoring with both recording paid 11 scores while Matt Williamson weighed in with paid 10 at the bottom end.
Williamson was happy with his own performance and still believes the cup is there to be won.
He said:“I’m over the moon with my personal performance tonight and this tie is far from over.
“If they can beat us by ten points then we can beat them by 10 points at Armadale.
“Nothing is done until it’s done and it’s all to race for next Friday and I expect us to bounce back.”
The Tigers had been dealt a blow pre-match with the news Chris Harris would miss out after his partner went into labour however the rider replacement didn’t weaken the home men by much.
The match was a nip and tuck affair with neither team able to assert any dominance early with the Tigers biggest lead being six points after Heat 10 and the Monarchs only lead being a two point advantage after a fantastic Heat Six 5-1 by Erik Riss and Williamson.
A second Monarch’s 5-1 in Heat 13 reduced the deficit to two and had many in the Monarchs camp believing something could be gained from the night.
This was to be short lived though as Tiger of the match Jack Thomas and Claus Vissing jetted from the tapes and with the experienced Dane shepherding the impressive youngster home the match was gone.
That just left the margin of deficit to be decided and once again it was the hosts who were fastest from the start in heat 15 on what was by now a super slick surface and 10 points was the final deficit on the night at Ashfield.
All in all it was an enjoyable evening and the changes to the Ashfield circuit look like they will pay off with the tie set up nicely for a barnstorming second leg at Armadale next Friday at 7.30pm.
After that it’s away to Scunthorpe Scorpians for the Monarchs at 3pm on April 1 in the SGB Championship.