PREVIEW: EDINBURGH v BIRMINGHAM (Cab Direct Champ)

EDINBURGH welcome back their top two of Josh Pickering and Craig Cook for tonight’s (Friday) Cab Direct Championship clash with Birmingham.

The Monarchs are yet to win at home in the league and are still unable to track a full septet as Paco Castagna is now out injured, and they operate rider replacement in his absence.

Monarchs boss Alex Harkess said: “The team Birmingham are tracking this week is a bit different, but at the end of the day there is only one result that’s acceptable, it’s as simple as that. We have to win it and we’d like to win it fairly comfortably.”

Meanwhile the Brummies have been boosted by their home win over Berwick on Wednesday which included a successful debut for Troy Batchelor, as they moved from ninth to sixth in the standings.

Skipper Justin Sedgmen said: “We need to build on that.

“When the chips are down, you’ve got to pull your finger out. When the chips were down before, everyone kind of shelled up and ran away from the problem whereas against Berwick we ran straight into it. 

“So it was definitely a lot more fun and now we go and see what this team can do away from home.”

EDINBURGH: Josh Pickering, Paco Castagna r/r, Bastian Borke, Kye Thomson, Craig Cook, Dayle Wood, Lasse Fredriksen.
BIRMINGHAM: Nick Morris, Alfie Bowtell, Troy Batchelor, Dan Thompson, Justin Sedgmen, Sam Hagon, Joe Thompson.

*LIVE STREAMING: https://www.edinburghmonarchs.co.uk/emtv