Harkess warning to misfiring Monarchs

Stellar Monarchs boss Alex Harkess told his misfiring men ahead of Friday’s Knockout Cup, quarter-final, second-leg: “I will be demanding an improvement.”

The Armadale combine need something special if they are to make progress having lost the first-leg at Oxford Cheetahs 54-36 on Wednesday.

Only Craig Cook and Kyle Bickley earned pass marks for the Monarchs septet and Cheetahs travel north top Armadale practitioners Sam Masters, Monarchs former skipper, and Scott Nicholls.

Cheetahs’ Lewis Kerr was injured when he crashed into Cook in the first-leg and another Armadale specialist, Justin Sedgmen, has been called in as a guest.

Cook took a hard fall as well but recovered to give an excellent performance. Monarchs skipper Josh Pickering is still missing (and awaiting definite news on his shoulder injury) and he will be replaced by Richie Worrall.

Disappointed Harkess (pictured in the blue jacket by Nigel Duncan), who watched the BSN coverage in midweek from Oxford, said: “I expected a lot more from our team. We’ve certainly made it tough.”

He added: “We are so inconsistent. We were OK on our opening weekend and at Berwick, but very poor last week at home and at Oxford.”

Friday’s match will be live streamed and details are on www.edinburghmonarchs.co.uk.

DATE: Friday 28 April: Edinburgh Monarchs v Oxford Cheetahs (Knockout Cup), Armadale, 7:30pm

STELLAR MONARCHS: Richie Worrall (guest), Lasse Fredriksen, Kye Thomson, Paco Castagna, Craig Cook (captain), Kyle Bickley, Jacob Hook.

MONARCH CHEETAHS: Sam Masters, Cameron Heeps, Scott Nicholls (captain), Jordan Jenkins, Justin Sedgmen (guest), Henry Atkins, Luke Killeen.