Speedway: Boos ring out as frustrated Monarchs fans see Stars win

EDINBURGH Scotwaste Monarchs soft centre was ruthlessly exposed by King's Lynn Stars at Armadale last night.

The Norfolk side put Monarchs to the sword pulling off a shock 49-41 Premier League win – a result which saw some Monarchs riders booed off the track after the last race.

After triumphing at Birmingham in midweek, to lose at home just 48 hours later was a cardinal sin and robbed Monarchs of the chance to go top of the table on their own.

Monarchs co-promoter John Campbell was incandescent and lambasted his team for the second time this season over the centre green microphone.

He said: "We needed our top five to get going but we were badly let down again, I'm so disappointed, I cannot believe we lost the match."

The bitter pill Monarchs had to swallow was the fact that William Lawson, still one of the capital club's assets, came back to haunt his old team-mates with a vengeance.

Lawson guested for Stars' injured ace Joe Haines, and showed he hasn't lost any of his liking for Armadale by stoking up 13 points from his six rides.

The Auchterarder rider won his last three outings and stuck the stiletto between Monarchs shoulder blades when he combined with skipper Kevin Doolan for a match winning 5-1 for his team in the heat 15 decider.

Lawson said: "It was a good meeting for me, and I enjoyed coming back and seeing some of my old friends."

Monarchs wandered into unchartered territory when they were forced to give captain Matthew Wethers a tactical ride when they trailed 17-6 after just four races, the Stars incredibly picking up 5-1 advantages in three of them.

Monarchs fans couldn't believe what they were seeing-but, when you have five fallers, as Monarchs did throughout the meeting, the points conceded as a consequence, ultimately proved unretrievable.

Yet it seemed as if Monarchs were poised to make a comeback to rival those of Frank Sinatra when they rallied and were just two points adrift of their visitors at heat 13.

But Lawson and Casper Wortmann never gave Wethers and Max Dilger a ghost of a chance in the next race when they recorded a 4-2 leaving Monarchs needing maximum points from the last race to draw.

Doolan and Lawson put paid to that faint hope.

Questions still persist over the make up of this year's Monarchs squad and this loss will do nothing to douse the terracing talk.

Trouble is half of the Monarchs team are living out of airports due to their various European commitments and just how fresh they are when they arrive at Armadale on a Friday evening is open to conjecture.

Monarchs were also not helped by the absence of Kalle Katajisto due to a World-Under 21 qualifier in Gdansk, Poland, tomorrow.

Katajisto has been flying at home and how he was missed.

His teammate Ryan Fisher, who tumbled off in the very first heat and was livid when he was disqualified from the re-run, seemed to let this eat away at him, and his eventual seven-point tally was his worst for Monarchs this season. It also underlined that, when the Californian has a bad night, his colleagues are unable to circle the wagons to stave off defeat.

Wethers said Monarchs must do better: "We never thought we were out of the match despite that first half, we were just a bit unlucky.

"I think a couple of our riders were caught out by track conditions but it was the same for everyone. However, we must do better.

"Our top five do have good and bad nights, but we need to sort ourselves out before we get too far into the league campaign.

"I wasn't happy with my own display, I was struggling for grip and found the track quite dry. It wasn't like it is most weeks."

Wethers added: "I played around with my bike set-up but still didn't find a set-up I was happy with.

"It was a real downer to lose at home after winning at Birmingham and, even though we didn't have Kalle, I believed we should have been able to cover for him."

After changing his gearing when he scored just four points from his opening three outings, Doolan was unbeaten thereafter. The likeable Australian said: "It was a quite enjoyable win for us and it was down to the efforts of the whole team.

"On a night when there were a lot of fallers, we had to scrap to make sure we got every point.

"It took me a while to get going after I realised my gearing was wrong. It did get a little scary when Monarchs pegged us back, but we kept our nerve over the last few vital heats."

Stars team manager Rob Lyon commented: "This was a great meeting for us and all the guys chipped in with something, we were using rider replacement for Tomas Topinka and we got eight points from it which was good."

Monarchs must go away and lick their wounds but the visit of Newcastle Diamonds to Armadale on Friday is going to give them some sleepless nights.

Monarchs: Wolbert 9, Fisher 7, Tabaka 7, Wethers 7, Dilger 5, Tully 4, Howarth 2.

King's Lynn: Lawson 13, Doolan 12, Smith 11, Dicken 6, Wortmann 6, Mallett 1.