Edinburgh Monarchs and Glasgow Tigers both have testing home matches in the Cab Direct Championship as they bid for a slot in the play-offs.

Monarchs host reigning Cab Direct Championship champions, Poole Pirates (tapes up 7.30), while Glasgow track against Redcar Bears (7.30pm).

Poole field a new signing, American rider, Slater Lightcap, currently highly placed in the SGP2 which is effectively the Under-21 World Championship. They also track a guest rider in Edward Kennett who stands in for Kyle Newman at No 7.

Monarchs are missing their regular No 7 as Jordy Loftus has to remain on the sidelines following a concussion in the recent away match at Poole. Guesting will be Oxford’s Darryl Ritchings.

Poole heat leaders Richard Lawson, Zach Cook and Lewis Kerr are a formidable trio and Monarchs’ team manager, Alex Harkess, said: “Poole have set the standards throughout the last few years. This year they’ve proved they are human and can have a poor result.

“We’ve got to beat Poole on Friday, it’s as simple as that.”

ROSS ECO TECHNOLOGIES MONARCHS: Dan Thompson, Jonatan Grahn, Justin Sedgmen, Paco Castagna (captain), Kye Thomson, Mitch Cluff, Darryl Ritchings.

POOLE WESSEX MARINE PIRATES: Richard Lawson, rider replacement for Will Cairns, Lewis Kerr, Cooper Rushen, Zach Cook (captain), Slater Lightcap, Edward Kennett.

Meanwhile, Glasgow Tigers face a crunch clash with Redcar and Cami Brown, their team manager, has a depleted side as they enter a spell of three home meetings. 

He said: “We have to pull out all the stops against our nearest play-off challengers Redcar. It’s now our biggest meeting of the season.”

Brown added: “If we win our remaining home meetings, we will be in the top four, but that won’t be easy against Redcar, Poole and Scunthorpe. They are all very good sides.”

The Allied Vehicles Tigers will use the same two guests they used at Edinburgh last week, Nick Morris and Reid Battye, to cover for Kyle Howarth and Mario Hausl.

Brown added: “It was a no-brainer to bring back Nick and Reid as guests after their performances at Armadale.”

TAPES-UP: Recent action, Edinburgh v Glasgow, captured by Taylor Lanning