We’ll just keep on winning then

So this is just a little bit weird. Three from three, play-off winners downed, Border Trophy awaiting a delivery from Wayfair. Happy fans, a veritable buzz around the crowd. A genuine belief that the best is still to come.

Edinburgh next on the agenda. Bandits red-hot favourites. History suggests that a number of blue and gold may choose to stay at home and interrogate their Take the High Road and River City box sets rather than steering their Rolls Royce’s and Porsches down the A1 on Saturday night.

They may claim not to know the meaning of the term “glory hunter” but judging by their most vocal online presences they are unfamiliar with the meaning of quite a lot of everyday phrases.

Unlike the stripeys who, in fairness attended in impressive numbers even when they were based at Coatbridge, various Blantyres, Shawfield even, without two brass razoos to rub together.

But they were lacking that usual zing on Saturday night, not helped of course by the abrupt end to their 13-match winning streak.

They’ve lost before at Shielfield – younger fans consult their grandparents for details – in fact, they used to lose on a regular basis but, whatever the score they downed some booze and made a helluva racket, invariably pretty good natured too.

But there were just signs that the crown is sitting heavy on the heads of the Glasgow faithful in the Ducket and main stand, some even getting all high and mighty over the smattering of pantomime boos which greeted Leon on his return “home.”

The sort of people who would fail to recognise a tongue-in-cheek claim by a three-times World Champion that he “hated” the current British number one if it were ever to be printed in a light-hearted article in a leading speedway magazine.

After years of being the Manchester United of speedway – chucking huge sums of money and winning the square root of chuff all – they only finally went and did it last year, p’ing off the Pirates for good measure in the final.

But while getting your hands on the spoils is tricky – allegedly of course because as a Berwick speedway and Newcastle United supporter I have only a brief nodding acquaintance with title chasing and no data whatsoever on successful ones – defending one is a mammoth task.

Especially when the winning team has to be remodelled and remoulded. Some were adept at it, the aforementioned Manure under the stewardship of the great Govan ref bullier, others one-hit wonders such as Arsenal while led by the myopic French chap.

Suffice to say none of the signings charged with the almost impossible task of plugging a Benjamin Basso sized hole took too many kudos on Saturday – although it does seem a little harsh to judge them on just one meeting.

As for us – well it’s a well-known fact that we only beat bad sides; ones hit by wretched luck or those foiled in their quest by the man who makes Voldemort look like a purring pussycat, Jekyll the epitome of reason and Nigel Farage a successful politician rather than a right-wing numptie living high on the hog off gullible worshippers, the high priest in the death star that is the BSPL, Rod Godfrey.

Workington? Yeah but if Cookie hadn’t dislocated his thumb… Workington away? Yeah but Cookie still had a sore thumb and three of them have barely ridden in Britain… Glasgow? Well if Lee Complin had been allowed to ride …

He’d have … well we’ll never know will we. How many points would a man with “a raging tooth abscess” have contributed to the cause. Ten? 12? One? None? Irrelevant because, in circumstances which will become clearer over the coming weeks, he wasn’t allowed to saddle up.

But do you know why we’ve really won all three meetings so far this season?

I do because when Stewart Dickson nipped into Helen’s Michelin-starred bend one bistro for a pre-meeting growler and fries – bit of ketchup, hold the onions –, washed down with Chateau Neuf de Nescafe, I had a sneaky peaky inside his briefcase.

Opened the dossier stamped TOP SECRET in red ink and entitled How to win at Speedway.

And there in immaculate 20-point Amasis MT Pro bold is the answer to life, the speedway universe and everything.

SCORE MORE POINTS THAN THE OPPOSITON.

It’s that simple. Only it isn’t of course.

You need a team capable – and willing – of throwing down the gauntlet to an opposition which has vastly more experience of its home track.

Here’s a stat for you. On Saturday Glasgow’s declared seven had a combined total of 83 appearances at Shielfield Park since 2021. The Bandits septet a mere 64 matches between them. And Jye Etheridge accounted for 35 of those.

Remove the incapacitated Complin and Reggie and the experience-omoter bounces 72-29 in Glasgow’s favour.

That is an incredible amount of track knowledge to cede but the answer appears to be a simple case of getting your head down and learning on the job.

Lewi’s carpet Bomber-ing of his opposite number is unprecedented anywhere let alone at Shielfield, Drew is still finding his feet but also rising to the challenge when needed most, Danyon is doing everything we hoped of him and more, Rory and Jye we knew about.

Freddy is every bit as big a talent as we were led to believe and Bastian has already bounced off every funbag panel and a couple of bits of home and back straight in search of points and never stopped smiling once. And we thought Connor Coles was a happy chap!

And the best thing is that there is a genuine and realistic belief that this has only just begun. That there is still a lot of improvement to be had from all seven, especially as they settle into their new surroundings.

Let’s continue to beat “bad sides,” “unlucky sides” and see just where 2024 takes us.

With the Bandits’ fans roaring them on.

You know the drill, tickets £18 (Buy Tickets) until midnight Friday, £20 on the day as is cash, £18 concessions, accompanied under-16s free. And please note it’s cash or e-ticket only (they can be bought until around 6.50pm). Wildly waving credit or debit cards will only cause the lovely box office staff to secretly roll their eyes, take a deep breath and explain that there really, honestly and truly is nowhere to stick them.