Speedway: No roar from Monarchs as Lions rampage at Armadale

The Lions snatched victory in a dramatic last heat decider when Richard Sweetman and Sergei Darkin swept to a 5-1 against Wethers and team-mate Andrew Tully, who was controversially disqualified from the race for allegedly bringing down Darkin on the third bend.

But Monarchs, who led by three points before the showdown, got what they deserved as their top five once again delivered a patchy scoring display and this was compounded by the continuing crisis at reserve with Ashley Morris and Jay Herne outscored by five points by their more lively Leicester counterparts.

Monarchs aren't ringing any alarm bells yet, but it seems inevitable should they lose at Newport Wasps tonight that changes will be made because they certainly cannot afford to lose to sides like Leicester again.

Wethers, who scored 11 points, said: "A few different things went wrong for us but you cannot win matches if you are not scoring points. Leicester made good starts and were winning races and they made it hard for us, it was disappointing that Kalle (Katajisto) didn't score many points, we are not the strongest team at reserve and it's hard to cover if one of your top five isn't scoring."

Commenting on the heat 15 decider, Wethers added: "Both the Leicester guys made good starts again and we couldn't do much about it. It was difficult to pass, but it was the same for everyone and we must up our game."

Katajisto's three point return after he rammed into the safety fence by trying too hard in his first race was a blow and the Finn at this moment is having a torrid time as he attempts to re-establish his scoring credentials.

However he wasn't the only Monarch culpable, No.?1 Kevin Wolbert failed to win a race and bust the tapes in a crucial heat 13 encounter when he became over anxious about getting into the first corner ahead of the Russian Darkin, who after a third in his first outing, was unstoppable and was instrumental in helping the Lions to their unexpected triumph.

Even Craig Cook, with two wins from his first two rides, petered out later in the meeting highlighting the sense that Monarchs as a whole are not exuding any sense of dominance around their home tracks, and this is worrying.

With Richard Sweetman and surprise packet John Oliver doing the business for Leicester in addition to Darkin, it was no surprise that their promoter Darren Hemsley was almost walking on air after the match. He said: "We came to Armadale thinking it might be a case of containment against the Monarchs bearing in mind we were using rider replacement for one of our injured heat leaders. But we clawed our way into the match in the second half and got the 5-1 we needed in that last race."

On Darkin being felled by Tully, Hemsley observed: "It was a 50/50 decision, sometimes you get them in your favour, sometimes you don't.

"The result is a massive one for the club and the riders', we try to instill a good team spirit among them, and we don't ask any of them to do any more than we realistically expect of them. Some of the pundits predicted Leicester would be wooden spoonists and get hammered everywhere, I think we have proved them wrong."

Monarchs co-promoter John Campbell didn't try to mask his disappointment and said: "I would never have believed that Leicester could come to Armadale and win, or even come close, after Kalle made that mistake in his first ride he became an also-ran and when that happens we don't have the reserve to cover.

"We were exposed by Leicester and there are far better teams in the league than them. "Everybody is saying we must make changes but this is easier said than done, we will see what happens at Newport tonight because this match establishes new averages for us from May 1 and if we have enough points to play with we may be able to bring in a strong reserve scorer, should we lose there will be a swift reaction."

Monarchs: Tully 11, Wethers 11, Cook 9, Wolbert 6, Katajisto 3, Morris 3, Herne 1. Leicester: Sweetman 11, Darkin 11, Oliver 8, Hall 6, Graversen 5, Courtney 4.