Edinburgh Monarchs' play-off hopes left hanging by a thread

It's tight for Monarchs duo Lasse Fredriksen and Max James going into the first corner at Berwick. Picture: Jack Cupido.

It was an identical scoreline to the BSN Series clash in April where hosts the Berwick Bandits secured the points that day, although it's Monarchs who have a semi-final clash with Scunthorpe to look forward to having finished top of the group.

It was all about Championship points on Saturday, however, and although the Blue and Gold did enough to secure the aggregate bonus point after a 51-39 victory in Friday's home clash, the search for that elusive first away win of the season now moves onto Glasgow on Friday.

In truth, Monarchs really had to secure maximum points if their faint hopes of a play-off spot were to remain in tact. And although it's not mathematically impossible for the Armadale men to finish within the top four, it does look like that ship has now sailed.

The visitors were only able to muster five race winners in the Borders and three of those came from guest Leon Flint, the youngster covering for the injured Justin Sedgmen.

Drew Kemp was really impressive for the Bandits as he only dropped two points from his five outings.

Team boss Alex Harkess said: "I am disappointed. We knew coming down here it doesn't change, it's from the gate and we didn't put ourselves in the major scoring positions enough. The reserves when they did get into scoring positions they then let it slip unfortunately.

"Even in heat 15 I was confident we might get a 5-1 but it just takes someone to make a gate and that's that, it's very disappointing."

Monarchs have now just three league fixtures to contest starting with this Friday's visit to Ashfield. The Tigers then make the return trip the following week before table-toppers Poole travel to West Lothian on August 23.

Silverware is still within Monarchs' grasp with the club just four meetings away from securing their first trophy in nine years. The Scorpions await in the last four of the BSN Series, a team they have already taken three points from this season (95-84 on aggregate). Those fixtures have still to be determined.

For now, though, all roads lead to Glasgow and another Scottish derby clash. And even if Monarchs' play-off hopes are all but over, putting a dent in their arch-rivals' chances will soften some of the blow.