Last updated 19:39, Thursday, 12 June 2008

ISLE of Wight team manager Dave Pavitt was looking to hold Workington to 15 points or less in the first leg of the Premier League Knockout Cup.

ON FORM: John Branney starred at both meetings

In the end it was right on the maximum figure he feels comfortable with pulling back in the second leg.

But in truth Workington’s management - owner Keith Denham and team manager Ian Thomas - would be looking for considerably more than that to take to the island.

Daniel Nermark won’t be riding in the second leg because of Swedish League commitments and Workington can only replace him with a Conference League rider, in this particular case Weymouth’s Jay Herne.

How much they will miss Nermark was underlined on Saturday as the Swede came up with another five-ride maximum and his points would have been invaluable in the return.

Thomas said: “If we were going to the island with Dan, and if Joe Haines had ridden in the first leg, I would have been confident of seeing the job through. It is going to be desperately difficult to do it now.”

For quite a way through this quarter-final first leg tie, the Comets looked as though they would be happy just to win never mind fashion a reasonable lead.

After nine races Workington only led 28-25 and the prospect of a semi-final berth seemed to be rapidly disappearing.

But a fine 5-1 - their second of the night - from Nermark and new Finn Tomi Reima put Workington on course for a big finish. They had heat advantages in five of the last six races to give themselves just a squeak of a chance with a 15-point advantage.

If Nermark was the architect, scoring those 15 points himself, there was an important supporting cast led by senior rider Carl Stonehewer.

Out for two weeks, bruised and battered from rib damage, Stonehewer wasn’t sure how he was going to feel but he responded superbly with a paid maximum in his first four rides - three straight wins and a second behind Nermark.

He was sent out again with the Swede in the final race of the night and probably produced his best ride, which was deserving of better than third.

He turned the clock back in exciting fashion just losing out on a thrilling duel with Cory Gathercole behind the winner Nermark.

Stonehewere said: “I enjoyed that, but I was a bit disappointed to lose out on a paid maximum. I was having a good scrap with Gathercole and thought I might just have nicked it.

“The main thing, however, had been to get through the meeting unscathed and none the worse for my efforts.”

Reima looks a solid addition to the line-up. As on his debut he struggled in his first ride but then bounced back to seven points and two bonus with some gritty, enthusiastic riding which has already endeared him to the Derwent Park faithful.

His fellow-countryman, club skipper Kauko Nieminen, wasn’t firing on all cylinders but he still managed two wins and nine points, important contributions on a night when Workington needed everything they could get.

None were more important than John Branney’s win in the penultimate race when he held off the tactical substitute Glen Phillips who had left Charles Wright on the track with a determined inside pass on the pits bend of lap two.

Branney hadn’t been having the best of meetings but he produced a typically committed effort into that final outing and won well.

Workington 53: Nermark 15, Reima 7, Nieminen 9, RR for Haines, Stonehewer 12, Wright 4, Branney 6.

Isle of Wight 38: Bunyan 5, RR for Fry, Phillips 8, Gathercole 8, Stojanowski 10, Bargh 3, Holder 5.