Revenge mission for success-hungry Edinburgh Monarchs against Redcar Bears

Redcar won the Knockout Cup semi-final against Edinburgh What the Fork Monarchs who need to step things up if they want to dismiss the Teesside club in the quarter-final of the SGB Championship play-offs at Armadale on Friday (tapes-up 7.30pm).

And the home side are seeking a substantial cushion to take to Redcar on Saturday (tapes-up 5pm).

The initial expectation was that former Edinburgh captain Erik Riss (pictured) would be fit to return from injury for Bears but he still has injury problems so the guest replacement will be another former Monarchs star, Aaron Summers.

Jason Edwards could miss the tie for Bears with a shoulder injury, in which case rider replacement applies.

Monarchs team manager Alex Harkess who said: “The job on Friday is for everyone to produce their best form, and if they do that I think we will be perfectly OK.”

The club are set to quit the West Lothian track at the end of this season and Harkess said: “We have an incentive because if we are knocked out this weekend, then Friday could be the last Monarchs’ match at Armadale.

“It’s a stadium which has meant so much to all of us over the years. We’ve had so many great nights here and landed a great deal of silverware.”

The British Speedway Network will make their fourth visit of the season as they are streaming all the Championship play-off matches.

Streaming Details on www.edinburghmonarchs.co.uk or via the BSN section of the SGB website.

What The Fork Monarchs: Sam Masters (capt ain), Lasse Fredriksen, Kye Thomson, Paco Castagna, Josh Pickering, James Sarjeant, Jacob Hook.

Agilia Bears: Aaron Summers (guest), Jason Edwards, Charles Wright, Jordan Jenkins, Lewis Kerr (captain) Kyle Newman, Kasper Andersen.

Saturday 17th September: Redcar Bears v Edinburgh Monarchs (Championship Playoff second leg), Ecco Arena, 5pm