Scottish
Cup Tie Starts Busy Week
Posted 21/07/05
Glasgow start a very busy 5 day spell with
a visit to Armadale tomorrow night for the away leg of this seasons
Scottish Cup competition.
The meeting has been hastily re-arranged, much to the surprise
of some Glasgow fans given the league programme over the next week,
but will no doubt have all the usual characteristics of a local derby.
Edinburgh are currently missing two of their influential
riders, Theo Pijper and Ross Brady, through injury. They have elected
rather unexpectedly to bring in Brent Werner as their guest. Brent
scored 8+1 from 4 when Rye House visited Armadale earlier this month
but has been struggling since with form and engine problems, even
resorting to x-rays to determine the extent of the bike problems.
Rusty Harrison has been consistent at Armadale all season and will
be a very tough test for the Stancl and Parker. Nermark has not lived
up to the fans expectations at home and has in recent weeks been the
target of boo boys but a rider of his quality cannot be written off.
A look at the averages shows that Cameron Woodward has put
a point and a half on his average this season, no mean feat, and he
has certainly raised a few eyebrows. His form means that Will Lawson
is currently one of the leagues strongest reserves. It has certainly
given the young Scot a boost of confidence and he has been scoring
freely of late. Fellow Edinburgh reserve is Robert Ksiezak. Its remarkable
that he is back racing so soon after his horrendous crash at Newcastle
in April and there are a few question marks over his fitness.
Glasgow have the opportunity to break the hoodoo that has
seen them go so long without a victory at Armadale but it will require
all the riders to perform on the night. Shane and George have been
in excellent form and will surely be the ones that Monarchs fear the
most along with the unknown quantity of Stefan Ekberg. the arrival
of Stefan seems to have given Claus a little extra confidence but
he will need to be on form on Friday. Unfortunately Armadale is not
one of his favourite tracks and the same can be said of Trent who
recently guested for Berwick there and scored a paltry 1+1 (4). The
Tigers pairing is inexperienced but both have ridden Armadale a few
times albeit at Conference League level and in Adams case doing second
halves.
Local derbies in any sport are unpredictable, the form book
tends to go out the window. the last few meetings have actually been
a bit of a damp squib as far as derbies go but this looks to have
the promise of being a close encounter and hopefully with good safe
racing.
