Edinburgh Monarchs close in on Championship play-off berth, but promoter Alex Harkess admits there's still work to be done

The Capital outfit are enjoying a fine season and currently occupy third spot in the CAB Direct Championship standings in the race for the top four.

Alex Harkess is confident his Monarchs side can make it through to the play-offs. Picture: Jack Cupido

With four league fixtures remaining, starting with tonight's visit of reigning champions the Poole Pirates, the Monarchs are in a handy position to achieve what they set out to do before a wheel was turned in April.

The Blue and Gold are unbeaten on home shale so far in 2026 with four wins and two draws, although they will feel they should have got over the line last week against arch-rivals the Glasgow Tigers after their opponents fought back from six points down with two heats remaining to snatch a share of the spoils.

The hosts would go on to lose the superheat and aggregate bonus point, but Harkess is confident a fifth win at Armadale this evening - and sixth against Berwick next Friday - will wrap up one of four play-off spots.

"The aim is always to get into the top four," Harkess told the Evening News. "Realistically we should be sitting top of the league but we're not, and that's the situation. It is still in our own hands. You only need to look over your shoulder when you throw things away. As far as I'm concerned we've got two at home and two away still to go, so the important thing is we win our two at home against Poole and Berwick.

"If we pick up anything away (Scunthorpe and Berwick) then it's a bonus. I think that would be enough to secure our spot in the play-offs. All the teams in and around us have got to race each other so they all can't take points. Poole is always a very hard match but it's up to us - we are good enough. I'm not sure we'll get the bonus point tonight but we definitely need the two points for the win. We don't want any slip ups it's as simple as that."

Monarchs will be without reserve Jordy Loftus who is still following the concussion protocol after his crash at Poole nine days ago, with Oxford's Darryl Ritchings deputising for the Australian teenager. Visitors Poole will also send a revised line up north with veteran Eddie Kennett replacing the injured Kyle Newman at reserve, while American Slater Lightcap joined the Dorset outfit earlier this week.

"Jordy is very much part of the team, as they all are," Harkess explained. "There's not many matches where both our reserves have done very well in the same meeting. Some nights it's been Jordy on fire, then other nights it's Mitch (Cluff). We'll need Mitch on Friday and, to be fair, he's done very well in our last few meetings, so hopefully it's more of the same.

"Darryl is not at Armadale every week. He's a guest where some nights it will work, other times it doesn't. Perhaps the most obvious candidate would have been Dayle Wood, but his average is too high so we can't use him. These are the circumstances with a guest where you just have to go with it and hopefully he'll do very well.

"He (Lightcap) has never been to Armadale before so we've no idea how he will do. But the bigger, and much more annoying problem, is them having Eddie Kennett at reserve, and that is just a ridiculous situation how that has been allowed to happen. However, we've just got to focus on ourselves and go and win the match."

Harkess admitted he was left frustrated at the manner in which Monarchs allowed their lead to slip at home to Glasgow last Friday. Skipper Paco Castagna had been leading the penultimate heat right until the final bend - that would have seen the Monarchs pick up the win and aggregate bonus point - only to be passed on the line by the fast-charging Kevin Juhl Pedersen.

It is alleged Castagna had been showboating throughout the race, making hand gestures towards the opposition.

However, the Italian stated afterwards he thought it was team-mate Cluff in second place, and not the Tigers' Juhl Pedersen.

Harkess said: "We should have won the Glasgow match but, at the end of the day, we didn't do that well last Friday as we didn't win too many races, but we should have won the match. We weren't at our best unfortunately. When we do what we're capable of we're probably very close to being unbeatable at home, but you've still got to do it.

"I wasn't very pleased last week. I didn't see anything as I was in the pits at the time so I was at the opposite end of the stadium. I couldn't understand why Paco was going so slow coming out the bend to get caught in the first place because he was so far in front. For three and three quarter laps we were standing there believing the match was won, the bonus point was won, and there's no pressure going into heat 15.

"So that was the situation, and there's not a lot more I can say about that. I think everyone knows the situation, Paco will surely never make that mistake again. At the end of the day we didn't lose the match with Glasgow but the annoying thing is we didn't win it. Hopefully the lessons will be learnt from last Friday and we'll move on."