MD

It was clear from day one that another top heavy team with a very weak end would do little as it did the previous season. It turned out that the top end would be just as weak as the bottom. Harris has been utterly woeful and insulted the fans with his incessant mechanical issues and poor performances. By being allowed to continue he has by default made a mockery of the owners. It was widely speculated we tried to replace him during May and June but signing him in the first place was the problem. Worrall as it turned out wasnt strong enough to carry it at 1 or 5 all season, as Edinburgh will find out next year when they dispense with Wells and his 9+ average. Vissing is what he is, just like Sarjeant, we cant act all surprised when they perform like they do. I've been super critical of the team structure all season, in particular the reserve make up but look at the teams which have turned us over, they often have a decent reserve who outperforms at home, Lambert at PB, Andersson at Edinburgh, Pijper/NBJ at Berwick, Jensen/Campton at Worky etc. Why do we overlook this when building a team. We could have had Pijper on 4.23 at the start of the season instead of Sarjeant. Anyway yesterdays result has confirmed what we knew for most of the season. Now if we could just roll over home and away to Ipswich!

Quelle surprise, it seems as poor a performance as you would have witnessed in the bad years, ironically when we had no money and little choice of who we could sign.

Appreciate your honesty. Hopefully BB does a turn.

Summers, Howarth, Klindt, Nicholls

Better than a rider who only beat a reserve on his last visit three weeks ago.

Whats his status regarding a work permit?

White flag raised in advance with that booking. Total lack of aspiration. We've known about this for around 5 weeks since Cook signed. Dickson would have been doing his homework and come up with better.

Another outstanding 20+ return from the reserve positions. Berwick seem to be coming good.

Crump was one of the biggest whiners of his generation. He was instrumental in making GP's slicker than slick during the Ole Olsen years which made the entertainment zero. He would argue black was white if it suited him and damn the rest. Having watched Shane Parker for 6 seasons, he was a fantastic rider but hated the wet. Sometimes you can look back through rose tinted glasses.

They arent obliged to, its either safe to race or its not. With both Captains seemingly in agreement its not, the disagreement would seem to be between the Ipswich promoter and Captain. Thats two weeks in a row Ipswich has been rained off which may be more to do with their efforts to get it on. Pity, we could have done with some practice on a small tight track with a visit to the 0131 next Friday.

He also declined to be based further south which didnt help his career when it was on the up. Auchterarder to Somerset or Poole is an all day event, to then have to ride four or five heats at the end of it.

Surely this was known about when they signed him. So thats Mark Riss, Garcia, Ruml and Clegg binned this season and Williamson chucked it early doors. Lawson at reserve could be a masterstroke, just like Clegg no pressure on him to score surely.

Sensing their might be a few 'From the gate' jibes tonight.

Starkey has been injured half the season and has only really started to get going. If he keeps his average below six we'll happily have him back.

Aaron Summers guests for Vissing at No3. Not sure why but again too many variables to have an inkling of what Glasgow will do with Nathan Greaves r/r, with his rides to be taken by Starke and the reserves. We again look weak at 6 & 7 in comparison to NCL making heat advantages very hard to come by so its over to the big boys, Cook and, erm, well Harris! Having consistently lowered my expectations as the season has gone on, predict a home win with Glasgow not even getting a look in for a point.

More like the remaining Premier clubs will be invited into the Championship as it has clearly failed after changing rstablished race days just to suit 4 or 5 riders.

Riders also need to be managed during the season and be clear on no piss taking. Going back a few months we had riders refusing to take ht15. Dickson wouldnt have stood for that, just as he didnt with Barker's self inflicted mechanical issues in 2016. Stuarts downfall was the top heavy team preference he favoured for many years, despite evidence that it never worked for Glasgow. You can understand the Facenna's being unhappy with him spending their money and getting it sorely wrong on team make up. However looki g at where we are now are we actually worse off without him?

Trying to work that one out, I've been to all the July meetings except Berwick away. Its either the Lakeside home meeting or BSPA error. Think I'll go with the latter!

Sarj has kept his low all season! Consistent in that regard if little else.

After this season Sarjeant is unemployable in speedway. He's been round at least half the Championship clubs and used up all his chances IMO.

Yip, and we can hardly argue we didnt know what we were getting with Sarjeant at the start of the year. I think there was an element of trying to recreate the past when he got his average above 4 with us in 2015 and was decent at home. However you could have worked out pretty soon into the season that wasnt going to happen and on a starting average of 3.33 or whatever it was, it is almost impossible to find a replacement.

Yip, Harris has all the hallmarks of a rider comtemplating retirement. Would have Lewis Kerr back, he's rider of the season for me and he's been injured 3 weeks. Starke has been a major disappointment, had some heavy crashes earlier in the season and never seems to have recovered. If his final average is below 6 I'd give him a second chance though. Vissing been fine and Jack Thomas has come on a bit though often on a hiding to nothing against experienced reserves. We've suffered this year with being soft at the top and bottom, something we need to correct next year.

Schlien is only part of it, unrealistic to expect 18 from anybody. We were outscored at reserve by 15 points, one of whom was unbeaten by an away rider which is more of a factor than anything.

Nope though Harris was their marquee signing rather than the then team manager who had to fit him in. We seem incapable of learning from the current and last season that weak reserves dont work. We also need a bit of continuity by retaining at least a couple of riders from one season to the next though all of this lot can go and we can start that in 2019 ☺.

Ouch, pretty embarrassing result which almost certainly confirms no play offs this year. I cant see us even winning our remaining home meetings never mind on the road. Too little too late with the Cook signing, the real damage was done structuring the team the way it is but I've more than mentioned that this year. The only consolation in not making the play offs now is not having the 0131 do it to us at the end of August, home and away. Plenty of time to analyse why we arent there compared to 2015 & 2016. Bring on the test match!