Scunthorpe V Redcar (pl Knockout Cup, Quarter-final, 2nd Leg) - Friday, June 14th (7.30pm)

[freddyfivetoes]

Did the drop-off in form by the team coincide with the change in team manager?

[thebaron]

Cannot fault Rob for his passion, the guy was in tears at the end!. But my message is we have to stick with it. If we started again we would have picked the pretty much the same 1-7 at the start of season obviously loosing Irving was a early blow. Looking down the order Josh has lacked a bit for me, MPT ? seems back to where was last year when his place was in question. His bikes lack speed? and hes spinning out of the turns? but hes still a developing rider and will come good again. Remember he scored a paid 21 max at the EWR last year. He needs a spell at reserve to build confidence ..that key in speedway. Ryan ? for me theres a rider there!..his last two rides last night he was on the pace in the thick of the traffic .But he needs track time. How often is he riding ? its two weeks since he rode at Scunny. Koppe at Sheffield is coming good, Fricke at Edinburgh we got to keep faith with Ryan.Hes come a long way to ride here.Its all new and hes learning the tracks. Let him go and I guarantee Scorps will rue it he will come good. Its rotten luck with Howe and Jorgensen both seem injury jinxed?. Rob is clearly frustrated with the authorities block on a team change but we have to get our heads up!. Ashley Birks has been our stand out rider and Lewis Blackbird has until last night done his job. So my message is lets get our heads up, make the change when we can and keep the faith with the riders we have. Champions 2012 yes but as a supporter I accept thats hard to follow and I am prepared to give our riders space to build confidence and form. Please cheer up Rob !!! speedways great lets enjoy it.

[montie]

Did the drop-off in form by the team coincide with the change in team manager?

 

To be honest I don't think it makes a difference

[Cliffeboy]

Don`t think there is much wrong with the Scorps this season, just having a bad run with injuries. It always seems to happen that when you are having a bad time yourself you tend to come up against teams who are bang on form and strong, eg Redcar and Somerset ( who are themselves a bit all over the place at the moment ). I think once Howe and Jorgy are back things will turn round.

[IronScorpion]

I am sure i heard this right, last night, when Rob said he thought it was going to be easy. WHAT! I do not think so as we are the champions & there to be shot at, a scalp or a feather in teams caps. We WERE awesome in the 2nd half of last year, after the changes, & covering for David &, later, guests for Jorgy, but this year we have been found wanting.

 

The nature of our track leads to fair, exciting racing with numerous opportunities for riders to hone their skills during the winter. Yes, the track racing surface is diferent & not consistent week after week, but it is the same for all teams with the changing weather. We seem to be riding against teams that are on form at the wrong time & it is making us look worse than what we are but we are, & so are others, missing key riders, but others are coping better than us.

 

We were hoping to keep the momentum going with our 5 from last year, supplemented by new reserves but it has not worked. Losing Irving just before the season started meant we were playing catch up with a quality reserve being able to step in when riders were not performing. Losing Jorgy early on did not help & r/r has not worked as Ash & David could get the points but Toft & a reserve could not. Both Jorgy & David seemed to be trying to find their feet again after their injuries of last year.

Ash has stepped up but the others have not. Josh is racing for that no1 spot all the time. Cannot blame him but it is not helping the team. He is racing for the win & 3 pts for his CMA rather than settling for the 2 pts & protecting your teammate & the team. "Palm Tree" Toft has got no speed. If his engines were no good last year, then were sorted, what is the problem now?

David now gets an injury when he commits himself to the PL & not EL but still has long track commitments, seemed to have been riding to test himself from last years injuries bar his last 2 meetings when he was going for it.

As for the reserves, we knew Bates was not ready, not even scoring big in NL regularly, Douglas his bikes were not good enough for the PL & even though he used to ride the dirt alot during the winter in Aussie, it's a different kettle of fish over here & he is not scoring enough. Lewis was taken on, & i hope not just because of of his performance against us, as i checked his results of away meetings & this could of been why Leicester let him go. He has, certainly, not reproduced that form since.

 

Why we are struggling at home is a mystery, but the opportunities are there for the riders to practice & wether they were or not, as i left after the injury in the 2nd half, the track could have been graded back and riders gone out to iron out the problems they have. The top 5 CAN do it as they have showed before,but it needs to be shown again, & soon, as fans will drop away, even though it is a fair, entertaining track, we need to be winning.

Edited June 15, 2013 by IronScorpion

[Fozzie4388]

I said it at the start of the season and i'll say it again now. The team was built all wrong at the beginning, It should have been built with Palm Toft (if he had to be in the team) at reserve and built from that.

 

A rider like Emiliano Sanchez (sat on the side lines and got a maximum for Sheffield round EWR last year) would have fit in the Scorpions top 5 perfectly with Josh, David, Thomas and Ash and a 3.00 at reserve with Palm Toft.

[stratton]

I said it at the start of the season and i'll say it again now. The team was built all wrong at the beginning, It should have been built with Palm Toft (if he had to be in the team) at reserve and built from that.

 

A rider like Emiliano Sanchez (sat on the side lines and got a maximum for Sheffield round EWR last year) would have fit in the Scorpions top 5 perfectly with Josh, David, Thomas and Ash and a 3.00 at reserve with Palm Toft.

No don't agree with that Palm Toft needs to now kick on he has ability but he is inconsistent to be in the team he should expect to be a top 5 rider.I actually think when everyone is fit things will pick up and they have been beaten by two fine sides recently. Edited June 15, 2013 by sidney

[Fozzie4388]

No don't agree with that Palm Toft needs to now kick on he has ability but he is inconsistent to be in the team he should expect to be a top 5 rider.I actually think when everyone is fit things will pick up and they have been beaten by two fine sides recently.

 

Yes i can see your point of view but with what i said with Palm Toft at reserve and if he had kicked on then Sanchez or Ash etc could have gone down to reserve, Then you are sure to always have 1 strong reserve through the season.

Edited June 15, 2013 by Superstar1

[stratton]

 

 

Yes i can see your point of view but with what i said with Palm Toft at reserve and if he had kicked on then Sanchez or Ash etc could have gone down to reserve, Then you are sure to always have 1 strong reserve through the season.

Good point but for me this season was always going to be near impossible to be as good as last.Ash has done very well Josh i think will get stronger now by what i have read he has been riding well he has scored paid 25 from the last two meetings and he will be around the 9 pt mark.You are right though the reserve positions have been a problem. Edited June 15, 2013 by sidney

[montie]

I am sure i heard this right, last night, when Rob said he thought it was going to be easy. WHAT! I do not think so as we are the champions & there to be shot at, a scalp or a feather in teams caps. We WERE awesome in the 2nd half of last year, after the changes, & covering for David &, later, guests for Jorgy, but this year we have been found wanting.

 

The nature of our track leads to fair, exciting racing with numerous opportunities for riders to hone their skills during the winter. Yes, the track racing surface is diferent & not consistent week after week, but it is the same for all teams with the changing weather. We seem to be riding against teams that are on form at the wrong time & it is making us look worse than what we are but we are, & so are others, missing key riders, but others are coping better than us.

 

We were hoping to keep the momentum going with our 5 from last year, supplemented by new reserves but it has not worked. Losing Irving just before the season started meant we were playing catch up with a quality reserve being able to step in when riders were not performing. Losing Jorgy early on did not help & r/r has not worked as Ash & David could get the points but Toft & a reserve could not. Both Jorgy & David seemed to be trying to find their feet again after their injuries of last year.

Ash has stepped up but the others have not. Josh is racing for that no1 spot all the time. Cannot blame him but it is not helping the team. He is racing for the win & 3 pts for his CMA rather than settling for the 2 pts & protecting your teammate & the team. "Palm Tree" Toft has got no speed. If his engines were no good last year, then were sorted, what is the problem now?

David now gets an injury when he commits himself to the PL & not EL but still has long track commitments, seemed to have been riding to test himself from last years injuries bar his last 2 meetings when he was going for it.

As for the reserves, we knew Bates was not ready, not even scoring big in NL regularly, Douglas his bikes were not good enough for the PL & even though he used to ride the dirt alot during the winter in Aussie, it's a different kettle of fish over here & he is not scoring enough. Lewis was taken on, & i hope not just because of of his performance against us, as i checked his results of away meetings & this could of been why Leicester let him go. He has, certainly, not reproduced that form since.

 

Why we are struggling at home is a mystery, but the opportunities are there for the riders to practice & wether they were or not, as i left after the injury in the 2nd half, the track could have been graded back and riders gone out to iron out the problems they have. The top 5 CAN do it as they have showed before,but it needs to be shown again, & soon, as fans will drop away, even though it is a fair, entertaining track, we need to be winning.

 

You come out with some crap!!

[phillwhitewasmad]

Not sure it's crap montie seems a well observed post of what has been happening we all have an opinion and seems its not far off the mark

[June]

I haven't been able to go to many matches this year so I'm not going to comment on riders performances. Montie asked me at the beginning of the season what I thought of the team they had put together. My reply was that the team wouldn't win anything. To me it looked obvious that our reserves ( 2 complete novices at PL standard ) would let us down. Unfortunately, and this is where our speedway has gone wrong. Reserves and not the higher paid riders are the ones who win the matches , simply because they can have 7 rides. I'd love to see every team in the league have No's 6 & 7 with 3 pt av riders who stay in those positions for a full season. Let the 5 riders race for the points. Injuries is tough luck, but they happen in speedway.

[neb]

I haven't been able to go to many matches this year so I'm not going to comment on riders performances. Montie asked me at the beginning of the season what I thought of the team they had put together. My reply was that the team wouldn't win anything. To me it looked obvious that our reserves ( 2 complete novices at PL standard ) would let us down. Unfortunately, and this is where our speedway has gone wrong. Reserves and not the higher paid riders are the ones who win the matches , simply because they can have 7 rides. I'd love to see every team in the league have No's 6 & 7 with 3 pt av riders who stay in those positions for a full season. Let the 5 riders race for the points. Injuries is tough luck, but they happen in speedway.

in an ideal world all teams would love to have a high scoring rider at reserve but they are far and few between but like you say a good reserve can win you matches.watching updates and keeping an eye on who is scoring what ( i have been keeping an eye on blackbird's scores as i was disappointed when he left my team leicester ) the problem you have at scunny seems to me is you have a rider in the main body who at best is only scoring what an average reserve would score.a simple fix would be get him back down to reserve let the weakest res go or find a better rider to replace him in the main body keep both present res or change one res and one second string,its so easy on paper but not that easy to find replacements.

[lucifer sam]

Scunny will be alright, simply because the people in charge of the club are so passionate about it.

 

From experience, I've seen what happens when you have promoters who aren't completely committed to their club. We had one or two at Oxford, who treated it as a plaything, until it either starting losing too much money or a bigger club came along, and then they simply tossed Oxford aside.

 

On the other hand, when it comes to the Scorpions, Rob Godfrey is the biggest fan in the place, which is how it should be. Rob wears his heart on his sleeve, and he wants to see Scunthorpe Speedway succeed.

 

There are ups and downs in all sport, and speedway is no different. One moment you're winning, the next everything can all go pear-shaped. Not long afterwards you can be winning again. Even the Premier League championship winning season of last year wasn't without its difficulties at times.

 

You can bet that Rob Godfrey is having sleepless nights, trying to work out how to get back to a winning team. It doesn't help that he's had his hands tied at this current moment, with the rulebook not being applied as it says, but that won't stop him looking for the solution.

 

Scunny won the Premier League last year. Only one team out of 13 can do that. Some teams such as Somerset and Workington, despite having won other silverware, have never won a league title. You can't expect to win the league every year, and there's a very good reason why no club has successfully defended the PL since its inception in '97 ('95 if you include the two amalgamated years).... because under the points limit, it's very hard to do.

 

Every club has ups and downs, and every promoter makes good and bad decisions at times. At Scunny, there's a promoter who won't rest until he's got things right.

 

And don't forget the rest of the package. There's the wonderful racetrack (which I consider to be the best in the country), there's the training track, there's the Amateur Meetings / Saints set-up which has already produced some great young riders, there's a very tidy purpose-built stadium that has gradually been built up from humble beginnings and continues to be improved every season.

 

Scunthorpe Speedway and the Eddie Wright Raceway are one of the real success stories of recent times. Rob will do his upmost to get things right this season in terms of returning to a winning side, but in meantime, let's enjoy the fact that there is a cracking meeting with great racing on display virtually all-the-time at the Eddie Wright Raceway.

 

All the best

Rob Peasley

Edited June 16, 2013 by lucifer sam

[IronScorpion]

Another missed oportunity, possibly! Did well in the David Howe Testimonial on old gear & borrowed silencer, mudguard etc. Could have done a good job in the middle order. Likes the EWR & scores decent away.