PREVIEWING: POOLE PIRATES v BIRMINGHAM BRUMMIES

Poole are set to complete their home programme of SGB Cab Direct Championship league fixtures on Wednesday (30th August) when they welcome the Birmingham Brummies back to Wimborne Road.

With top spot still in the Pirates' sights, a position that would give them the right to select their two play-off opponents in the group stages, victory is a must. That would give the Pirates three league points having won at Perry Barr last month by eighteen points.

As the league currently stands, Oxford can achieve a maximum of 36 points, but would need to win at Glasgow to achieve that, whilst Poole can reach 35 points with wins from their last two matches - the final one now scheduled for Wednesday 6th September at Edinburgh.

Poole promoter Dan Ford said "We have got to keep the pressure on and so it is important that we keep our current form going. Both of our remaining fixtures are winnable but there is still work to do starting on Wednesday. Birmingham themselves have work to do to make the play-offs as it would seem the final place is now between them and Edinburgh. So they will be coming here to try and upset the form book and give themselves a major boost. That is obvious in their choice of guest as Josh Pickering hit double figures when he was last here with Edinburgh and Justin Sedgmen has appeared here twice before this season and won races. Throw in Troy Batchelor they have three Aussies all capable of scoring well and with Paul Starke down at reserve  this could be one of those banana-skin meetings if we aren't careful. So our game plan won't change any. This is a must win for us, that's for sure."

Former Pirate Stefan Nielsen suffered a wrist injury last week and would have been a non-starter for the Brummies in the double meeting at Edinburgh on Friday which was washed out, so they will be keeping a watchful eye on his recovery with the intention of tracking him at number two. Likewise Poole are waiting for news on Richard Lawson who was injured during Sunday's Championship League Riders Final at Redcar.

For Poole reserve Joe Thompson it will be a chance to get one over his former club, having been released by Stewart Dickson at the beginning of July, whilst the meeting will be Kyle Newman's last one in the main body of the team, for despite having increased his average for September, he will drop to reserve with Anders Rowe  going in the opposite direction when the September averages take effect.

Teams
Poole - 1 Richard Lawson 2 Kyle Newman 3 Ben Cook 4 Zach Cook 5 Steve Worrall (Capt) 6 Anders Rowe 7 Joe Thompson - Team manager Neil Middleditch
Birmingham 1 Josh Pickering (Guest) 2 Stefan Nielsen 3 Troy Batchelor 4 Alfie Bowtell 5 Justin Sedgmen (Capt) 6 Sam Hagon 7 Paul Starke - Team manager Stewart Dickson
Photo Credit: Tony Hartmann