PREVIEW - PIRATES PLOTTING TO BRING DOWN THE MONARCHS

After facing two sides pushing hard along with the Poole 'Wessex Marine' Pirates for top spot in the SGB Cab Direct Championship at Wimborne Road recently, in Oxford and Redcar, the Pirates turn their focus on attempting to see off a side that is fighting to scrape into the play-offs, when Edinburgh Monarchs visit on Sunday (5pm).

The fact that the Monarchs are just clinging on to sixth place in the table, which if they stayed there, would see them make the cut as the last play-off qualifiers, means nothing to Poole manager Neil Middleditch who admits:
"I will be repeating the message that we have to treat them with the same respect as we have done with all clubs this season. I have said time and time again, because I am so long-in-the-tooth in this sport that there are no easy meetings. Points have to be earned and you can 't take anything for granted, whatever the form book says.  You've got to take one meeting at a time and I have been in this game too long to underestimate any teams at all. They know it is Fortress Wimborne Road so they will come here wanting to knock us off our perch.
" So my thing to our boys will be to just ask them to carry on doing the things we are doing. Try to hit them hard from the start, we didn't quite manage that against Redcar on Wednesday, as they got a 5-1 in the first race which was a bit of shock to the system, but, you know, we fought it back and had the meeting back under control. We will have to do that, get control, early on Sunday by really hitting them hard and just push forward. It is a big week ahead and we know that they are all meetings we have got to win . The boys know what's ahead of them and the team is going good. We've got seven riders and two managers and I feel we are solid from one to seven and I think we just have to keep that going."

Edinburgh will be led by Craig Cook who has turned in some decent scores in the past around Wimborne Road whilst Josh Pickering has been first or second in thirteen of his past nineteen rides around the Poole circuit. The Monarchs will have something of an unknown quantity about them as Dayle Wood and Bastian Borke will be making their track debuts and they will also be hoping for improved performances on their previous visits from Michele 'Paco' Castagna and Kye Thomson, both of whom have just come from respective absences, the Italian through injury and Thomson due to illness. Max Clegg completes the Scottish septet.
Poole will continue to utilise the guest facility for the injured Adam Roynon and are exploring their options. 

A Pirates win on Sunday will give them their best unbeaten string of Championship results this season, as it would be their fifth successive league victory. They won their first four this season before going down at Oxford, then won a further two before their narrow defeat at Glasgow but with wins against Berwick (away), Oxford (home) Scunthorpe (away) and Redcar (home) a fifth straight win is now required to keep their aspirations for top spot alive. It would also be their 35th Championship victory since stepping back in tier two speedway since 2021.

Teams
Poole - 1 Richard Lawson 2 Kyle Newman 3 Ben Cook 4 Zach Cook 5 Steve Worrall 6 Anders Rowe 7 Guest to be confirmed Team manager Neil Middleditch
Edinburgh - 1 Craig Cook 2 Michele 'Paco' Castagna 3 Kye Thomson 4 Bastian Borke 5 Josh Pickering 6 Dayle Wood 7 Max Clegg Team manager John Campbell