May insists Gladiators will not give up the fight

PLYMOUTH Gladiators manager Garry May insists anything is possible, but the odds are firmly stacked against his side from progressing to the semi-finals of the Championship play-offs tonight, writes Stuart James.

After going down to a 60-30 defeat at Poole Pirates last week, the Gladiators must overturn that daunting deficit at the Coliseum tonight and in order to do so, they are again reliant on riders from elsewhere to help them out.

The experienced Scott Nicholls comes in at number one, while Aaron Summers has also been drafted in as a guest. Ben Morley is at two, rider replacement is in place for the suspended Ben Barker and Lee Complin and Connor Coles are in reserve. Captain Hans Andersen, at five, is the only original fit enough to take his place in the team.

Poole will again be at full strength which makes the challenge all the more difficult for a Plymouth side, who had high hopes of a successful campaign back in April. But injuries – the like I have never seen before in my near 40 years of watching the sport – have quite bluntly ruined the season.

But who would have though Leicester City would win football’s Premier League? Or Emma Raducanu would win the US Open as a complete unknown? Even as recently as Saturday, horse trainer Roger Varian stormed to a staggering 34,838/1 seven-timer across the cards at Ayr, Newbury and Newmarket which underlines that, in sport, anything is possible.

“Nothing is impossible is it? We will give it a good go and hopefully, we have the riders that can make a difference and even if we don’t do it, it and get knocked out will be nice to win the match,” May said.

“We never gated in any race last week. They outgated us in every race and we only won one race all night and that was Aaron Summers in heat 14 and you can’t afford to be out-gated, especially at this level.

“The boys all tried and Poole are a strong side. But it is what it is, there was a good crowd there and thanks to those that came from Plymouth – it was really good and the boys went out and shook their heads afterwards and we will need them again tomorrow night. Anything can happen in speedway and you never know.”

Nicholls comes into the team having competed in the British Final at Belle Vue on Sunday, which was won by Dan Bewley.

It was a less successful night for

Nicholls, though, who finished 14th after picking up only three points for three third place finishes.

It was also an afternoon to forget for popular Cornishman Chris Harris, who picked up two second place finishes after a last place in his opening race. Harris needed something special and looked on course to get it in his fourth race, only for his bike to fail him on the last bend of the last lap when he was out in front.

Harris picked up another second place in his final race to finish with six points, but Bewley was in a class of his own winning all five of his heats and then the final. Tom Brennan was second with Craig

Cook third.