Last updated at 12:32, Monday, 17 September 2012

Workington Comets maintained their unbeaten home record on Saturday night at Derwent Park by defeating Glasgow 44-42 and in doing so cemented their place in the Premier League top six, which guarantees their place in the end-of-season league title play-offs.

Tony Jackson

Afterwards Comets team manager Tony Jackson spoke of his relief at securing the play-off place: “It is certainly nice to finally book our place in the top-six, which is where we have been all season long, but the injuries to the side are certainly taking their toll now.

“Having lost Tero Aarnio with a cracked collarbone at Somerset last night meant we went into tonight’s match with only three of our riders and three guests, although ironically our three guests scored a combined total of 22 points as did our own three riders, so there was certainly no lack of effort from the guests, for whom we are once again very grateful to for helping us out, especially Newcastle’s Claes Nedermark, who came in at very short notice.

“Richard Lawson and Rene Bach were terrific tonight while I was very impressed with Sheffield’s Ricky Wells. His ride in heat 14 to defeat Henning Bager and secure victory for us really was above and beyond the call of duty for a guest rider, especially in those difficult conditions.

“Track conditions deteriorated quite badly tonight once the rain came and it was certainly the correct decision to curtail the action with one race to go, although Glasgow’s team manager Alan Dick didn’t think so; he argued for the meeting to carry on to heat 15.

“In fact , I believe there was a strong case to call a halt one race earlier as it became pretty dangerous out there and the riders said it became like ice as you entered the corners, with the bike taking the rider where it wanted to go rather than the other way round.

“But, at the end of the day we won and suffered no more injuries, which is all that matters.

“So now we’ll see what the play-offs bring us and, if we can get one or two of our injured riders back on track by then, even better!”

First published at 11:26, Monday, 17 September 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk