Exeter has long been the graveyard of Monarchs' hopes and true to form they went down once more. However the losing margin at eight points was considerably down on the twenty to thirty points that have become the norm in recent years. It should ensure that Edinburgh pick up the aggregate match point in the return at Armadale next Month.

Much ceredit for Edinburgh's respectable scoreline must go to guest Simon Stead who scored an incredible 19 points from six rides including second place as a heat 14 'golden double'. While Simon Stead almost certainly scored more than Peter Carr would have done, Monarchs definately missed Dalle Andersson. Dalle would have been expected to score reasonably well at Exeter. His replacement Rory Schlein failed to score from three rides.

Monarchs went behind after conceding a 5-1 in heat 2 and lost further ground after losing 2-4 advantages in heats 4, 5, and 6 to slip 10 points behind. A further 5-1 in heat 9 left Monarchs well adrift. They did fight back with adavtages in heats 10, 11 and 12 to cut the margin to eight points. A 4-2 for Exeter in heat 13 set things up for the 'golden double'. Simon Stead managed to take second place to give Monarchs a 5-3 heat advantage and go into the final heat eight points behind. This was held after a 3-3 tie in the final heat.

Robert Eriksson scored 8 paid 9 from five rides. Jan Andersen took 8 points from six rides. Only Christian Henry offered much support to the three heat leaders with 4 paid 5 from four rides. Ben Shields scored 2 paid 3 from 3 rides. Blair Scott's dismal away form continued with 1 point from three rides.

Match Report

Exeter have been suffering with injuries themselves and have not been in the best of form. Edinburgh will face a much tougher task against the Isle of Wight on Tuesday. The Islanders are, along with Sheffield, the only Premier League team still unbeaten at home.

The injury to Dalle Andersson could prove to a major problem for Monarchs at Smallbrook. In his largely unproductive spell with Glasgow he scored 12 paid 14 from five rides in the Premier League and 6 paid 7 from seven rides in the Young Shield. Unless the the bottom end of the team can put together some points, Monarchs are likely to struggle on the Island.

Monarchs remain in second place in the Premier League but can expect to move down th table throughout July. Monarchs only have one home Premier League match between now and the last weekend in July.

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