Josh Pickering insists Edinburgh Monarchs are ready to take down Pirates

The Capital outfit welcome British speedway powerhouses the Poole Pirates to Armadale tonight for their eagely-anticipated second leg clash where the hosts will be aiming to overturn a nine-point deficit to book their place in the last four.

The Monarchs, who last won the cup in 2014, battled hard during last Wednesday's first leg in Dorset but fell to a 49-40 defeat.

However, Australian Pickering, now in his seventh season with the Blue and Gold, is confident the Scottish side can sink the Pirates to move a step closer to ending a 10-year wait.

The 27-year-old star said: "Poole always seem to build a team that go well at home. But I do feel if we all do our job and what we're capable of then we should overturn the deficit and get the win. I was disappointed we ended up going down by nine at Poole as I thought we could get the victory.

"I don't want to lose any match at Edinburgh this year, I don't want to lose away because I think we're capable of winning everything. As long as everyone has the same attitude and is wanting to do that. I want to win them all, it doesn't matter what competition it is. I'm going to be trying to win every race. Things are going well in my camp so there's no reason why we can't be back winning trophies like Edinburgh deserve.

"The track was perfect last week against Berwick. The starts were good and was one of the best in a long time.

"Last year we were injury-riddled so we could never field our 1-7 with that routine of everyone rocking up and wanting to be there. All the boys are getting on very well, the winning mentality is there and that's already been proven when you're up against good teams. You've all got to get on and help each other when it's required."