PIRATES SEEKING VICTORY DESPITE FIRST LEG ADVANTAGE

Poole refuse to consider whether they have six of the best points in their locker, when they head to Leicester on Saturday (16th October) night, as they will be making the trip with a view of repeating their league visit back in July; a meeting they won by four points.  

Co-promoter Dan Ford explained, "We can't afford to go there and just defend the six point advantage we hold as that could be wiped out fairly quickly. We have to treat this as a one-off really. It is true that we need to score 43 points to qualify for the play-off final but to get that total we need to be winning races. There is not a great deal of room for any slip-ups." 

"Everyone knows how tough it will be, but we do have a very determined bunch of lads, just as the Leicester side have as well. So this looks to have all the makings of a very good and tense meeting." 

The Pirates field the same septet as Wednesday night, after having doubts about the fitness of Rory Schlein who sustained a shoulder injury in Wednesday night's heat fifteen as he threw everything in to trying to hunt down Lions' skipper  Kyle Howarth,  in a bid to increase Poole's advantage. He angered an ongoing shoulder problem that he has been carrying, but has reported in as fit for the second leg. The unchanged look to the Pirates means inspirational guest Zach Cook will again cover for the injured Stefan Nielsen at reserve. 

Poole will open the meeting with a combination of riders with plenty of Beaumont Park experience behind them as Danyon Hume partners Poole's number one Steve Worrall. 
Hume, recently promoted out of the reserve berth admitted "To be where I am now in the main body of the team is where I wanted to be. At the start of the year that was my goal and so I feel I have achieved that. It is good to be in heat one and to be able to go out on a fresh track and not having to watch on from the pits and it has it perks because on the plus side you get a better choice of where to line up at the gate. I think we are capable of going there and getting the job done, but it is going to be tough there is no doubt about that."

Teams:
Leicester: 1 Nick Morris 2 Dan Thompson 3 Ryan Douglas 4 Kyle Howarth (capt) 5 Chris Harris (guest) 6 Joe Thompson 7 Zaine Kennedy Team manager Stewart Dickson
Poole: 1 Steve Worrall 2 Danyon Hume 3 Rory Schlein 4 Ben Cook 5 Danny King (capt) 6 Zach Cook (guest) 7 Ben Basso Team manager Neil Middleditch