BARKER FOCUS ON TROPHY

BEN BARKER says his Plymouth side are focused on bringing back a trophy to Devon. 

The never-say-die local star insists the Gladiators need a strong win over Workington in the Cab Direct Championship this Saturday, live on BSN.

Every meeting now for the club is a vital warm-up for when they eventually face Berwick in the MAXiCab KO Cup final, with dates still to be finalised. 

Their last home clash saw a strong win over Poole at The Coliseum, so they are becoming tough to beat. 

Barker said: “The plan is to get a trophy in the KO Cup final. The play-offs aren’t out of the window but we’ve got a lot to do to achieve a top four place.

“Our main concentration is on the KO Cup and that includes using our home meetings to be in the best possible shape for whenever the final is.

“That starts with Workington on Saturday. We know that we have to be good at home and a strong win over the Comets is absolutely vital.

“I don’t think it takes a genius to work out that if Tobias Thomsen had stayed fit that we had a recipe for a very good team.

“Scott, Danny and myself have all had knocks as well. This is speedway and these things happen. Ultimately you have to deal with those situations as best you can. 

“At this point we want our home form to be good. We want to take a 10 or 12-point lead to Berwick. We rode there really well when we went there in the league. We won on aggregate then, so hopefully we can repeat that. 

“We really want to bring a trophy back to Plymouth. It’s been too long and this club deserves it for the effort put in by people behind the scenes. It’s been fantastic promotion so it would be great to have some silverware for all the hard work.”

Image by Taylor Lanning.