Following last weekends triple injury whammy, it will be an unusual looking Tigers team which lines up on Sunday (4pm) to face the far travelled Isle Of Wight Islanders in Premier League business.
With Shane Parker (broken collarbone and wrist), Josh Grajczonek (broken wrist and hand) and Mitch Davey (concussion) all likely to be missing for a number of weeks, the Glasgow promotion have a real headache as to how the team should best cover for this brace of injuries over an indefinite period of time. As far as this Sunday is concerned, Tigers welcome Workingtons Carl Stonehewer as guest rider for Shane, the Rider Replacement facility for Josh and to Gary Beaton coming into the side at reserve in place of Mitch.
These injury troubles apart, the remaining riders each managed to record some decent scores in last weekends clashes with Newcastle. Robert defied his recent critics by scorching to a 13 point score at Ashfield, followed by 5 points at Brough Park. He has had a busy week which involved travelling to Poland for some racing and also riding for Belle Vue in their Elite meeting against Eastbourne.
Trent struggled a little at Ashfield last Sunday (5 points) but bounced back impressively to score 13 points at Newcastle the following evening, and will certainly be required to reproduce this level of scoring against the Islanders on Sunday.
Possibly the most positive performances over last weekend were those of Ross Brady who picked up 7 points at Ashfield followed by 8 points on Tyneside, once again he will be a key man on Sunday and will be expected to take points from the Islanders second strings and heatleaders if Glasgow are to realistically stand a chance of winning.
Lee Dicken didn't score what he would have wished, however having been elevated into the No.2 racejacket the team will need to count on Dickens experience to take a couple of scalps on Sunday and assist the overall team score towards that magical 46 point mark.
The Islanders will arrive at Ashfield on the back of a league visit to Berwick the night before, however will be confident of being able to take some league points back South. In the forceable Jason Bunyan, vastly experienced Paul Fry and Glenn Philips, the visitors will expect to have the necessary top end strength to outgun the make shift Tigers team.
The Islanders also have former Tigers target Cory Gathercole amongst their ranks as well as fellow Aussie James Holder the brother of the sensational Aussie international Chris.
So, yet another extremely tough looking challenge for the Tigers to overcome if they are to open their league account on Sunday, however the mood in the camp remains positive and the riders will try all the harder to provide the lift that everyone needs at this desperate time.
Whatever the result, we should expect some sensational battling speedway between the two sides, make sure that you are there to cheer the Tigers on and possibly see the turning point of the 2008 season for the club.
