EDINBURGH captain Paco Castagna insists there’s “no pressure” on his side after beating Glasgow.
The Stellar Monarchs delivered a stunning 52-38 win over their rivals in the Cab Direct Championship semi-finals on Friday night.
Now they have to try and defend that lead at Ashfield in a fortnight.
But in the last two clashes at Glasgow, the Monarchs have lost by 16 and 26 points.
Castagna said: “We should be very happy. We’ve lost to Glasgow a couple of times at home this year so with a 14-point lead I think we should be happy and proud.
“There is no pressure on us, we made the play-offs and because we had no pressure we showed what we are capable of.
“If we go through to Glasgow in a couple of weeks and ride like we did tonight then I think we will be happy at the end of the night. We are very focused on that.”
In difficult wet conditions, Glasgow were comfortably outgunned by their Scottish rivals.
Team boss Cami Brown added: “It’s always tough coming to Armadale, they are a good team on their home track.
“The weather made conditions tricky, it was very wet and cold and our boys just couldn’t get out of the starts.
“Trying to pass in those conditions is almost impossible and it was an uphill struggle all night.
“Plus we were missing three riders which always makes life so hard. It’s frustrating because we’ve been good here all season before tonight.
“It’s clear to see how much we missed Dan Thompson especially who has been outstanding at Armadale all season.
“But the boys did very well to fight back in the latter stages and reduce the deficit. Kyle Howarth and Freddy Hodder battled so hard while Dayle Wood and Leon Flint also worked for every point. It just was a very rare off night for Chris Harris.
“We’ve beaten Edinburgh with 53 and 58 points on the last two occasions. We’ll need to do it again.
“The boys gave it everything but now we know we have a mountain to climb for the second leg at Ashfield in a fortnight. We will fight for every point to get to the final.”
Words by Holeshot Media.
Images by Taylor Lanning.