QUARTER FINAL PLAY-OFF DATES CONFIRMED

The Pirates face two crucial meetings in the space of two evenings, as the two most southerly based sides meet home and away, with Plymouth staging the first leg of the quarter final play-offs on Tuesday night (7pm) before the tie returns to Wimborne Road on Wednesday night (7.30pm)

The Pirates have already knocked the Gladiators out of the KO Cup (106-74), eliminated them from the SGB Championship Jubilee League, with convincing home and away victories, and finished three places above them in the SGB Championship league  despite not having won a league match against them this term, after losing 53-37 in Devon after having held them to a controversial draw at Wimborne Road back in June.

"I guess they will be claiming that we haven’t beaten them in the league this year so now is the time to put that right. We have absolutely no desire to hand over our league title without a fight and I believe that we can go all the way if we apply ourselves like we have been doing in recent weeks. 

"It is clear that Plymouth have more than their fair share of injuries but there have been plenty of times in the past when we have been described as the 'patched-up Pirates'. It is all part and parcel of speedway. They have been putting together some decent results without their regular one to seven and we know that Garry (May) will be working hard with the promotion to find the best possible guests, as he has had to for much of the season.

"Our focus will just be to go out there and ride to our best abilities. We have the characters in the side to deliver the big results and here on in now we are going to need to call on those collective abilities. Nothing can be won on Tuesday but we will be heading there with the goal of having an advantage to defend in front of our own fans.

"I might begin sounding like a stuck record over the next few weeks but we have to treat every meeting as a final and if the fans get behind us we can make this a memorable season.