Monarchs are on the road for a Yorkshire mini-tour with matches at Hull on Wednesday and Sheffield on Thursday. With Robert Eriksson not being risked in two gruelling away matches, André Compton has been booked to guest.
Following back-to-back defeats by Newcastle, Edinburgh are looking to get their Premier National Trophy campaign back on track with a win at Hull. The New Craven Park track is one that Monarchs ride well. A win there by Monarchs last season ultimately cost Hull the Premier League title. Hull have made a late start to the season with successive rain-offs and have not really got going yet in defence of a competition they won last year. They have suffered a home defeat to Workington and were beaten heavily at Glasgow on Sunday.
Monarchs chairman Alex Harkess commented:
"We do have a chance. We won at Hull last season. The track holds no fears for us and most of our riders go well there."
The key to winning at Hull is to get out of the gate first as passing is never easy on the narrow track sandwiched between a dog track and a Rugby League pitch. The fast starting Jan Andersen and Derek Sneddon could turn out to be the key riders for Edinburgh.
Things will be much tougher on Thursday against in-form Sheffield at Owlerton. Sheffield are unbeaten on their own track for several years. Only Peter Carr of the Monarchs team normally goes well at Owlerton. He should receive some support from André Compton who is a genuine track expert having ridden two seasons for Sheffield in 1998 and 1999. If Monarchs are to keep the scores close enough for the bonus point to be attainable, there will have to be contributions from the likes of Jan Andersen, Blair Scott, and Christian Henry.
It has been confirmed that Robert Eriksson will make his Armadale comeback on Friday in the return against Sheffield. A Monarchs spokesman added:
"The decision was purely Robert's as to when he would return. He is still not 100% fit and felt the away matches were a bit risky because his foot is still a bit sore."
To take some pressure off Robert after three weeks out, he will move to number five on Friday. This will mean a fullscale reshuffling in race order as Jan Andersen will move up to heat leader. So either Peter Carr or Jan Andersen will go out at number one partnered by Blair Scott or Ben Shields. Further changes may be necessary next week if Ben Shields drops to reserve.