Edinburgh Monarchs target double delight over Berwick Bandits

Monarchs star Lasse Fredriksen leads the way with skipper Paco Castagna in third. Picture: Jack Cupido.

The win moved the Capital outfit up one place to eighth in the Championship standings ahead of tonight's return fixture at Shielfield Park.

Monarchs were without Australian Justin Sedgmen, who has been ruled out for three weeks following a concussion sustained in the win over Workington eight days ago. The 32-year-old was in attendance at Armadale last night and confirmed he expects to be back on the bike for the visit of arch-rivals Glasgow on August 9.

There was solid scoring throughout the home side with Josh Pickering, Kye Thomson, Lasse Fredriksen and skipper Paco Castagna contributing 46 points between them and covering for Sedgmen's absence well.

Lewis Kerr was the star man for the Bandits with four race wins from his six outings.

The focus is now on picking up at least the bonus point from tonight's meeting south of the border, but Castagna insists they are targeting much more. A win at the home of Lowland League football club Berwick Rangers could take the Monarchs to within touching distance of the top four.

"It was a good win last night obviously," the Italian said. "We wanted to get as many points as we could, but I think we were expecting to get a few more because we had a great start. I think heat 14 was my fault for missing the start but I tried to pass Connor (Coles) and then go for Joe (Thompson) but I just couldn't make it at the end. But it's a good win and we'll be strong for tonight and we can get the win there as well.

"I think we proved what we've been saying all season that we can be very strong so it's just about sticking together. The top four did fantastic, the reserves as well, and even without Sedgy we still won by a good amount of points. We've got a good guest in Leon (Flint) at Berwick tonight, we can't get any better than that, so we're focused on getting the win and all the points."