REACTION: PIRATES DOWN BY EIGHT

Poole find themselves in a 'do-able' position to keep their double title hopes alive after an eight-point defeat in the first leg of the Knockout Cup semi-final against the Leicester Lions, although promoter Dan Ford felt that the Pirates should have been in an even stronger position, after leading the meeting at the halfway stage.

A 5-1 from Ben Cook and the busy Danyon Hume inched Poole ahead after heat 8 by just two points, having found themselves two heat advantages down after the first two heats at Beaumont Park. But although the meeting remained close, and three times after the Pirates had taken the lead for the one and only time the scores were even, Poole fell away in the final three heats, out-scored 13-4 from heat thirteen onwards to go down 41-49 on the night.

"I felt we did well to recover from that bad start" admitted Ford "but to then take a bit of a battering in the last few heats was disappointing. We had done the hard work and you would have hoped that we could have retained them in the closing stages, but they had Morra (Nick Morris) in excellent form (the Australian going through the card unbeaten) and you have to be pragmatic and recognise that they (Leicester) have a strong top three just like ourselves. I think the meeting at Poole on the 29th is set to be a real battle. We will need at least two heat advantages to wipe out the deficit and I don't need to remind anyone that in Stewart Dickson they have one of the shrewdest team managers and he will certainly be keeping them grounded. But before all of that we do have the little matter of completing our league campaign this coming Wednesday and whilst we are almost there already, we want to make absolutely sure of that top spot by beating Redcar and in the process maintain our unbeaten home record."

LEICESTER 49, N.Morris 15 (3,3,3,3,3), D.Thompson 2 (1,1,0,0), R.Douglas  8 (F,3,3,2), K.Howarth 5 (1,R,1,3), H.Andersen 11+1 (2,3,3,2',1), J.Thompson 4+1 (2',0,1,1), Z.Kennedy 4 (3,0,1,0)
POOLE 41, C.Wright 9 (2,2,2,1,2), S.Worrall 10 (3,2,2,3,0), B.Cook 9+3 (2',1',3,1',2), D.King 7 (3,2,2,0), D.Ruml 3+1 (1,1',0,1), D.Hume 3+1 (0,XD,1,2',0,0,0)

Full report and heat details here