Speedway: Harkess outlines logic behind Monarchs team

Published on Monday 1 August 2011 14:12

Edinburgh MONARCHS chief Alex Harkess today defended his team management in the wake of Sunday's crushing 58-32 Premier League defeat at the hands of title-chasing Glasgow Tigers at Ashfield.

Harkess came under fire from some quarters for choosing to give a tactical outing to Kevin Wolbert in heat 11 which saw the German gain nothing after finishing third behind Tigers duo Claus Vissing and on-fire reserve Nick Morris. Many felt Andrew Tully stood a better chance of doubling his points had he been handed the opportunity in the previous heat against a weaker-looking home pair of Josef Franc and Theo Pijper.

But Harkess revealed Tully didn't think he could win the race. "When we spoke beforehand Kevin was up for it at that stage, Andrew wasn't confident and his words were we should give the opportunity to Kevin. You tend to go along with the feeling and when it works it's wonderful, when it doesn't everybody says why didn't you do this, or why didn't you do that.

"Kevin had had a good win in his previous outing and we felt he might do it, but he didn't."

Monarchs lost costly 5-1s in the opening two races and this sealed their fate against a Tigers side who were missing three of their regulars which led to the mistaken belief that the Capital outfit had the capability to spring a major shock.

Harkess said: "I didn't expect Kevin and Kalle (Katajisto) to lose a 5-1 in the first heat, I wasn't surprised we lost the second race because we always knew our reserves would be outscored. But our top five had to produce and two of them didn't, and you are not going to win matches with just three riders."

Only skipper Matthew Wethers, Tully and Wolbert earned pass marks and Harkess added: "They all tried their best and did what they could, but it was uphill all the way after those first two heat losses. It was all about making starts and we didn't make enough, it was a very tough afternoon."

Monarchs director Mike Hunter called his side's display insipid, adding: "Once again we saw the gulf that has developed between our home displays (good) and our away ones (often bad) and the magic touch which made us so competitive and so often successful on our travels in recent seasons, has deserted us. The team we have should be capable of doing a lot better, and to be honest we probably have never been poorer at Ashfield. The Tigers will have their tails up for the return fixture at Armadale on Friday and we have handed them the psychological advantage and need to up our game by the end of the week."

Monarchs co-promoter John Campbell agreed, saying: "It was a very disappointing result and I thought we'd do a lot better, we did not show enough fight."

Worryingly for Monarchs, Tigers are expected to be at almost full strength for Friday with No.?1 Joe Screen and James Grieves returning to action after missing Tigers' three matches at the weekend with flu and tonsilitis respectively. Although Tigers defeated Monarchs they lost away to Scunthorpe and Workington beforehand but remain on course to clinch the championship.