NJC71

Somerset were blown away tonight. Obviously Tungate's absence made it very difficult but I expected far more, partiularly from Josh G who had a poor night by his standards and didn't really show much appetite for the battle either. Charles Wright rode well, Starke give it his all as usual and I have to say Jake Allen was worth far more than his two point return. But the Rebels were poor and didn't look anything like a side who had only lost 1 match all season. Obviously it would have been closer with Tungate riding but still a comfortable home win (and perhaps no 8-1). That is credit to the Diamonds though. Lambert looked very determined from the off, perhaps getting rid of the frustrations from last night. That's the quickest he's looked for a while. Morris did ok on debut - I think that's what I expected from him. Should be good enough to win heat 2 at home and pick up some third places. Steve & Victor not quite at their best tonight but it shows how strong we were that we still managed to get 57. It is such a shame that Lewis picked up that bad shoulder injury as I honestly think we would have had every chance of winning the league and KO Cup double. Perhaps we still have a chance although I think Lewis will be a big loss away from home given the form he was in. Special mention to Matty Kus. He was absolutely awesome tonight. Never thought I'd see Matty Kus blasting to a paid 15 point maximum around Brough but he did so in some style absolutely rocketing out of the gate all night. Top drawer and a very apt choice of programme cover. Also credit to the track staff. It chucked it down all day and all night yesterday and rained again this morning so the track must have been in some state. It rode very well so they did a cracking job.

If's, but's and maybe's Dave. If Victor is injured with the full 1-7 as it is now (or any of the other top 5 riders for that matter), are we really going to be good enough to win anything with R/R and Morris and Phillips at reserve? I suspect we'd get well beaten in any play-off match anyway so I'm not convinced by the thinking that we had to have seven riders. With Victor at reserve and still taking two of his number 2 rides (and Kus one of the others) I think we'd be much stronger and I think that's the only way we could have still emerged with a trophy. Anyway its done and hopefully I will have lots of egg on my face come the end of the season - it wouldn't be the first time.

Not being vilified at all, certainly not by me as I've just pointed out. But people are absolutely entitled to offer an alternative opinion. We did have options here and the promotion have made their decision. I don't think they've made the right decision but that's just my opinion which as a loyal supporter of many years is just as valid as yours.

Tero's average is too high to replace Lewis. I agree as I have said in other posts. The reason being put is that we want a 7 man side in case we lose a rider through injury but the reality is that even with this 1-7, if we lose a top 5 rider in a play-off match against a Somerset or a Glasgow we'll be out anyway. I still don't understand it but it's done so I guess we just have to get on with it and hope Ashley can surprise us. The promoters have put a very good side together this year and pulled a rabbit out of the hat with Victor so I hope they have called this one right.

We'll have to agree to disagree on this one Dave. Victor at reserve and good cover for the R/R rides was an absolute no brainer for me. Nothing against Ashley at all and hope he is a big success, but we would have been far stronger with Victor at reserve. If we can't find a competitive number 7, Ashley is going to be under big pressure to score well. Not seen anything in his scores this season to suggest he'll get the points we'll need for this to be the better option of the 2 available. And that's no disrespect to him, I just think we'll be asking far too much of him.

Yes I would prefer a full team but not when the change significantly weakens us as this has done. In this instance I would definitely have taken the risk. With Morris & Phillips at reserve I can't see us beating any of the top teams in the play-offs anyway.

Lewis' injury was very unfortunate and agree I can't understand why we haven't replaced Phillips - can only assume there literally isn't an alternative. But we had the opportunity to get Victor down to reserve thus negating the loss of Lewis. With R/R Victor can take two of his former no 2 rides, Matty can take heat 8, leaving only 1 ride to account for. Surely that's a better option than signing a rider who is not likely to get anywhere near the points Lewis was getting? The only possible reasoning I can think of is the unwilingness to run with a 6 man team. But if anyone is injured surely we'd be allowed to sign a replacement or at least use a guest.

Well if we are trying to limit Danny's rides why is he still in the team? I'm sorry but I can't see how this is a good move. No dirsespect to Morris but he is nowhere near the standard of Lewis. One rider who is though is Victor and this basically means we are choosing Morris at reserve over Victor? That makes no sense at all. R/R gives us 2 rides for Victor, plus Kus and the no 7 and keeps us with a very strong reserve. That surely has to be a better option than Victor at 2 and (in my opinion) a very weak reserve pairing.

To replace Rose I assume? That would presumably push Victor back to number 2? If so I don't understand the thinking at all as that would leave us with a very weak reserve pairing. We'd be much stronger with rider replacement surely? Or am I not reading this correctly?

A replacement for Phillips is vital. If we could find a competitive number 7 I would rather use R/R. The worst combination is an inadequate replacement for Lewis with Phillips. That would cripple us.

We would probably have lost with our full 1-7. For some reason we are always garbage here regardless of who is riding for us. No idea why as it's hardly a tricky track and it's not as if Scunny have had particularly strong teams in recent seasons. This was just our standard poor Scunny performance. Not sure why George went with Kus rather than Wells for the TR but it wouldn't have made much difference.

Think that was misleading. There is certainly no 9pm curfew as we sometimes run on Mondays with 7.30pm start time and those meetings often run beyond 9pm. Obviously you can't run meetings too late so I guess at some point a decision to abandon has to be made. Wasn't there tonight but I really hope Lewis hasn't suffered a season ending injury. That would be a massive blow to us and Lewis. Obviously hope Dan is ok too.

Awesome display from the Diamonds tonight. Well done lads.

Perry actually rode pretty well and was worth more than the 1 point. In general though I was disappointed with Peterborough. Ulrich had a nightmare night, fell when second, touched the tapes and made a complete mess of the last corner when leading comfortably and gave away a 5-1. Cook was as quick as ever here although I think Worrall had him beaten in heat 15 when he slowed for some reason. Jakobsen had one good win but was otherwise poor, same for Holub. Grondal was off the pace, Morris did his job. Another strong home display from the Diamonds. Lambert had a poor night and generally doesn't quite look himself at the moment. Hopefully he can get his speed back and get back on form soon. The rest of the team are so strong, one iffy night for a top five rider isn't hurting us as with Kus last week. Rose was again awesome and what a signing Palovaara has been. He's ridden like a heat leader at home. Friday will obviously be a different ball game but with Lambert, Kus, Lindgren and Worrall all capable of scoring well we have a chance of at least a point.

The 3 point rule introduced this year is just another in the long line of stupid rule changes that has done nothing to enhance the sport. All we have are a number of 3 point riders who are clearly not ready for PL racing struggling desperately for points with their clubs having no alternative options and the other end of the scale with a rider like Dan Bewley who is clearly way better than a genuine 3 pointer having his average protected all year, leading to situations like today where his allowed to replace a rider he is far better than leading to a joke of a result. Had Somerset had their 1-7 on track or only been allowed to replace missing riders with riders of a similar ability, then Glasgow win comfortably. And of course this system opens up abuse of the system with teams turning up with 'missing' riders so they can use it to their favour. The old system of riders getting a true average after x number of home and away matches which is then updated every month worked fine and stopped crazy situations like today happening as Somerset would only have been able to use a genuine 3 pointer to replace ZW. At the end of the day if riders are good enough they will progress. A sensible solution would be that every team must have two British riders at 6 & 7 regardless of average. Whose to say this won't happen again in the play-offs? Then we get potential Champions just because they had a ringer in their team on the right night.

Looking forward to this. Any visit from Craig Cook is worth attending. Absolute master of Brough and has clashes with Lambert, Worrall & Lindgren should be good. Ulrich is normally good around here and Jakobsen might also be decent. Not sure there will be enough from elsewhere for the Panthers to be threatening a win though. 52-41.

Not lots of passing but still a very good meeting with close racing. Diamonds should have won more comfortably but threw a number of points away which very nearly proved costly. My view on the refereeing decisions: Worrall had to go in heat 6. He clearly moved twice and having been warned the ref made the correct decision. Robson just seemed to run out of room. I don't think anybody touched him so again I think the correct call. The race though should not have been stopped as Robson was up and they weren't even exiting bend 4. In the re-run Kus made a hard move under Bjerre. Looked like he took Bjerre's front wheel away so again looked the correct call although I was standing closer to bend 1 so some distance away. Worrall's move under Busch in heat 15 looked silly to me. Lambert was in front so why take the risk? Again I didn't have the best viewing point but when Busch went down I immediately expected Worrall to be excluded. Busch was excellent for the Bears and Bjerre rode well - I expected to see him in heat 15 having won heat 13 against the same two riders. They always looked vulnerable at reserve though and so it proved although the 5-1 in heat 2 was a blow. For the Diamonds Lambert rode well and I thought that was a great ride in heat 15. He didn't want to get too close to Bellego and risk taking him down but had Busch all over him on the inside. Very mature ride. Worrall looked very quick but like I say made an error of judgement in heat 15 to go with the exclusion. Man of the match though was Lewis Rose who was absolutely superb. Take a bow. Good win and a very good night. ..

Should be a good match. We drew there in the League Cup match with Richie at number 1 having a poor night and poor scores from reserve despite plenty of effort from Garcia. Hopefully we'll be better in that respect tonight with Lambert and Rose in the side. Redcar had Branford as a guest that night so might not be as strong at reserve but they have improved considerably in the top 5 with Busch in for Buckhave and Bjerre back in form. Much will depend on Lambert and Rose. Both need to have good nights to back up Worrall, Kus and Robson. Think Redcar might edge it but we must pick up at least a point.

It's a good point. Certainly not the fault of the website people as they can only update with the info they are given but the promotion could certainly be more up front with the team details, particularly this season when it has been such an issue. There has been stuff on twitter and facebook suggesting - but not actually confirming - that the Swede's would be out but it doesn't seem to follow through to the website and of course not everyone uses social media.

Much better effort from Sheffield. Bates rode very well and Howarth had a decent meeting as well. Had Garrity been riding it would have been a good contest although still a home win mainly due to Stead who despite plenty of effort had another poor meeting here getting done for four 5-1's which would have been five had Kus not come off. Another strong performance from the Diamonds with Worrall a class apart. Danny struggled again though and doesn't really look like scoring. Can't be much fun for him and I'm surprised we haven't tried someone else. I see King's Lynn now have a match on Thursday. I assume that means we will once again be going to Redcar with three riders? If so then Lawson or Ostergaard, Robson and Garcia? Or do we take a put on Richie given he's in top form at the moment and forget the poor score the last time?

Over the top reaction on Kus. He has been decent of late, one poor match and that's it he has to go....By the same token Lambert and Paolvaara would also be dropped as they were both equally as poor on the night. It was a disappointing result. Workington (a bit like Scunthorpe) seems to be a track where we always struggle for some reason. I've said that I would fancy us over two legs against anyone but Workington would be the one team I'd want to avoid as they also go pretty well at Brough. We need to bounce back tonight and we certainly need to do better in our remaining away matches if we are to secure a play-off place.

I wouldn't say Somerset are a big distance ahead. Newcastle only lost by 4 there in the league and may well have won had Worrall been riding. The Diamonds are very strong at home, forgetting the opening challenge match only Glasgow have got anywhere near us at Brough and that was mainly due to the absence of Lambert & Rose. I don't see that changing unless we get injuries. On the road we still have a bit to prove mainly due to not getting the full 1-7 on track enough and perhaps some less consistent displays from one or two but we've generally been good enough for 40+ points everywhere. I'd still back us over 2 legs against anyone with a full team.

Decent meeting, track a bit tricky early on with a number of points thrown away by both teams. Redcar kept it relatively close and might have been closer has Nielsen not locked up when they had made the gate in heat 8. Also unfortunate when Skidmore came down with Andersen in control of heat 10, 5-1 Diamonds in the re-run. Misfortune though too for the Diamonds with Kus falling when on a 5-1 with Ludde in heat 3 and Lambert inadvertently pulling his cut-off out when ahead in heat 11. Lindgren again superb - that's three success home maximum's and 16 rides unbeaten. Kus also impressed and that must be his first ever genuine pass when he came from 4th to 2nd in heat 9. Not sure why Lambert was seemingly annoyed after a good race with Bellego in heat 13... certainly seemed wound up in heat 15. Redcar more competitive than in recent Brough visits and were just let down by Busch struggling. Shows how strong the Diamonds are though when we don't have things all our own and still win by 23 points.

So no Victor anyway. Team confirmed as Lambert, Worrall, Rose & Phillips. That's us out.

We are up against Sheffield without Garrity, Plymouth and Redcar. Not sure if the other teams will be at full strength but I wouldn't rule us out completely. If Lambert & Worrall can score heavily, Victor has a good meeting and Lewis chips in we may still have an outside chance. Would we be back to full strength if we make it through to Sunday?