Speedway: Kyle Howarth's second chance to Star for Edinburgh Monarchs

The 16-year-old replaces flying Finnish reserve Kalle Katajisto, who has a World Under-21 qualifier in Gdansk tomorrow . He wasn't certain he could have made it make it there in time had he ridden this evening. Monarchs director Mike Hunter said: "We possibly could have got Kalle to Gdansk but it was very tight."

Howarth stepped in as a guest for the injured Max Dilger against Rye House Rockets seven days ago and impressed with his endeavour, which included a brilliant second place ahead of Rockets skipper Chris Neath which earned the Bournemouth Buccaneer rider the man-of-the-match award.

Monarchs promoter John Campbell described Howarth as a very satisfactory guest afterwards and Howarth himself said after what was his first visit to Armadale: "I really enjoyed myself and to beat Chris was just awesome for me.

"I didn't dare look round in case I made a mistake."

Hunter added: "We are not expecting miracles from Kyle but, the way Kalle has been riding recently, not to have him here is a blow and we are weakened as a consequence. We need everyone going and to hope we don't have an unlucky slip. We have to really put ourselves in the frame with this one."

Hunter also responded to speculation which has linked popular Pole Michal Rajkowski with a return to the Capital club at the expense of Hungarian Jozsef Tabaka.

Rajkowski was frozen out at Armadale this season and joined Stoke Potters, who axed him this week after just ten matches following a run of dismal scores. Tabaka only picked up one point in Monarchs' 48-41 win at Birmingham in midweek and this has re-ignited the debate surrounding his future.

Hunter said: "I would say Jozsef has shown a lot of promise but at Birmingham he was very poor. And that was his fourth really poor meeting, although he has had six or seven matches where he has shown promise.

"It's difficult to change the side and we could put Rajkowski in for Tabaka but do we want to? If we did put Rajkowski in and his scores were just as bad for us, what then.

"We are always looking at the situation but we definitely want Tabaka to complete 12 meetings. It would be terribly cruel to dump him before that."

King's Lynn were forced to dismantle their treble-winning squad of 2009 and have run into injuries already this season.

They are missing skipper Tomas Topinka, who is out with a broken right fibula, and British Under-21 champion Joe Haines is also sidelined with a broken collarbone.

They will use rider replacement for Topinka and have booked former Monarch William Lawson as a guest for Haines. This could turn

out to be a shrewd move, given that the Auchterarder ace loves Armadale.

While the Stars are unquestionably a weaker side now – they went down 55-37 at Scunthorpe Scorpions last week – they will have cottoned on to the fact that Monarchs, despite winning their first three league fixtures, have been a bit wobbly around their own circuit at times.

Stars' top duo are Kevin Doolan, who rejoined the Norfolk side after spending last year at Workington, and Kozza Smith, who top scored with 14 points at Scunthorpe.

Howarth will partner Max Dilger at the tail-end for Monarchs. The German scored three points in his comeback match at Birmingham and, if Monarchs' top five are not on song, much may depend on how the Monarchs duo fare against the Stars pair of Mallett and Casper Wortmann.