WITH the new speedway season just a week old, Scotland's big city clubs meet this weekend in the first derby clash of the year.

Following an encouraging opening-day performance against Belle Vue, the Glasgow A-Plant Tigers travel to Armadale tonight in the first leg of the annual Spring Trophy against Edin-burgh Monarchs.

They were dominant against Tigers last year, winning every clash between the sides, and a significant improvement in results is something which certainly is a focus of the Glasgow club, as team boss Stewart Dickson confirmed.

He said: "Last year was very hard to take from a rider, promoter and supporter perspective, so we would like to get at least one victory against them this weekend.

"It may be a tough ask to win tonight, but I believe we have enough about us to win overall on aggregate."

The Monarchs, the reigning Premier League champions, will travel to Glasgow for Sunday's deciding second leg full of confidence that they can secure a win on a circuit they have always performed well on.

However, the revamped Tigers have plenty of self-belief and will be equally confident of settling a few scores against their rivals.

Skipper Shane Parker is especially looking forward to this weekend. He said: "These meetings mean so much to the fans of both clubs. They have a special atmosphere which can be a bit intense for the younger riders.

"However, me and the other lads in the team are very determined to give our supporters something to gloat about."

The A-Plant Tigers will experiment with the race pairings for the first few meetings with a view to trying to find the optimum balance.

Sunday's starting line-up will have the riders ordered as: 1 - Shane Parker, 2 - Ross Brady, 3 - Peter Juul, 4 - Josh Grajczonek, 5 - James Grieves, 6 - Mitchell Davey, 7 - Anders Andersen.