MONARCHS BUILD AN ADVANTAGE
EDINBURGH produced their best home performance against league leaders Glasgow this season to establish a 14-point lead from the first leg of their Cab Direct Championship play-off semi-final.
The Monarchs roared out of the traps in the early stages of a match affected by a pre-meeting downpour, and the superior gating of the home side helped take them 20 points ahead after Heat 10.
Glasgow hit back with a 4-2 and a 5-1, both teams suffering some misfortune in the closing stages as Edinburgh’s Jonatan Grahn shed a chain when leading Heat 14 whilst the visitors’ Leon Flint fell in Heat 15 as he looked set to join team-mate Kyle Howarth up-front.
Skipper Paco Castagna scored 10 for the home side, who won 52-38, with Justin Segdmen (9+3) and Victor Palovaara (9+1) also paid for double figures. Howarth did the most to keep the Tigers in the tie with 13 from five rides.
Castagna said: “We should be very happy. We’ve lost to Glasgow a couple of times at home this year, so with a 14-point lead I think we should be happy and proud.
“There is no pressure on us, we made the play-offs and because we had no pressure we showed what we are capable of.
“If we go through to Glasgow in a couple of weeks and ride like we did tonight then I think we will be happy at the end of the night. We are very focussed on that.”
Tigers boss Cami Brown said: “It’s clear to see how much we missed Dan Thompson especially who has been outstanding at Armadale all season. But the boys did very well to fight back in the latter stages and reduce the deficit.
“We’ve beaten Edinburgh (at home) with 53 and 58 points on the last two occasions. We’ll need to do it again.
“The boys gave it everything but now we know we have a mountain to climb for the second leg at Ashfield in a fortnight. We will fight for every point to get to the Final.”
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Photo credit: JACK CUPIDO
