Monarchs are at Newcastle on Wedenesday for an away Premier League match that is cruicial to Edinburgh's chances of finishing second in the League.

Edinburgh received a boost when Blair Scott, who missed Sunday's win against Arena Essex, has declared himself fit for the Brough Park match. With fellow reserve Brain Turner scoring eleven points plus one bonus on Sunday, the return of Blair should give Monarchs the best reserve pairing in the Premier League.

However, Monarchs will not be at full strength since Justin Elkins is out following his crash at the end of heat one on Sunday. Justin had ridden a brilliant race to pass and keep out Leigh Lanham to take second place. Unfortunately Justin tangled with Lanham just after the flag and fell. He is suspected that he has two broken fingers on his left hand but it is not possible to x-ray the hand until the swelling has gone down. Justin also has a sore back and other minor injuries and clearly cannot ride on Wednesday. He is hoping to be back for Friday's Premier National Trophy first leg. Monarchs will use rider replacement on Wednesday. This means one extra ride for Ross Brady and three extra rides for Monarchs' in-form reserves.

The run-in for second place in the Premier League between Edinburgh and Newport is looking finely balanced. Newport are currently two points ahead of Monarchs while both teams have two away matches left to complete. Edinburgh have visits to Newcastle and Reading while Newport have to go to the Isle of Wight and Newcastle. A win at Reading would give Monarchs three points but they will have to win at Newcastle by five points to take all three points from Brough Park. Newport have a slightly tougher run-in and need to win at Smallbrook to take the bonus point from the Islanders having lost at home by six points. Newport also have only an eight-point lead to defend at Brough Park.

Realistically, two wins for Monarchs should be enough to secure second place especially if the bonus point is collected at Brough Park. This will be not be easy as Edinburgh have lost twice at Brough Park and won once this season but is possible. Reading is also a track where the Edinburgh riders generally go well but the Racers will be determined to end their unprecedented fifteen match losing streak. Edinburgh did seem set to win the original staging despite trailing by two points when the meeting was abandoned. Monarchs appeared to be coming to terms with the track and had pulled back an early six-point deficit and semmed poised to move into the lead in the rerun of heat 9 when the referee called time due to the deteriorating track conditions and the heavy rain.

Monarchs should finish no lower than third unless the Isle of Wight win all remaining matches and take all outstanding bonus points and Edinburgh fail to win another point.

This means that Monarchs are now assured of a place in the Young Shield Play-offs to be held in October. As things stand, Edinburgh' most likely opponents are Berwick and Exeter.

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