Preview: PIRATES KNOW THERE IS WORK TO DO IN PLAY-OFFS

The Poole 'Wessex Marine' Pirates will take the first tentative steps towards trying to secure their third final of 2024, and maintain their record of being play-off finalists for the fourth successive season.

To accomplish the feat they will need to overcome the Workington GT Tyres Comets with the two sides meeting in the first leg of the semi-final on Wednesday night (11th September, 7.30pm).

Poole promoter Dan Ford is under no illusions of how tough the opposition will be, even though the Pirates have racked up a total of 170 points from the two occasions when the Comets have visited Wimborne Road this season. "We always seem to be the team that other clubs want to see fail and our opponents raise their game when they meet us in these play-offs, but as we have said all season we, as a club, still feel we let our fans down last season in the critically important meetings  and desperately want to redress the balance this time around. Workington are not going to be easy for sure and looking beyond them, neither will Scunthorpe or Oxford, so there is a very long way to go before we can land the league title back at Wimborne Road. But our lads are very much up for the task and over the next few meetings our supporters can really play a vital role with their encouragement and vocal support every time we take to track. Obviously, the goal on Wednesday will be to build up a decent lead  to take into Saturday's second leg as that will put more pressure on Workington. We know we have the riders capable of going to the GT Tyres Arena and doing a job but the more points we can have in the bank the better. September is going to be a vital month for the club and every race is going to be a vital one."

Workington have a catalogue of injury concerns ahead of Wednesday's meeting as they were already suffering the long-term absences of Tate Zischke and Claus Vissing, but are now facing up to being without number one Craig Cook, sidelined with the ill-effects of a dislocated shoulder. They have booked Lewis Kerr, Jason Edwards and Leon Flint as their replacements.

Meanwhile, the Pirates could be able to welcome Vinnie Foord back in to the fold, should he come through a fitness test on Tuesday. He has missed the last eight matches for Poole having seriously injured his shoulder, but is keen to get back and be a part of the Pirates one again. Hopes are also abound that Sam Hagon will resume his place in the side after missing the Pirates' KO Cup trip to Scunthorpe last Friday with a recurrence of a mouth injury.

Teams:

Poole (TM Neil Middleditch) 1 Richard Lawson 2 Sam Hagon  3 Ben Cook (Capt) 4 Zach Cook 5 Tom Brennan 6 Tobias Thomsen 7 Vinnie Foord or Guest
Workington (TM James Denham) 1 Lewis Kerr (Guest) 2 Jason Edwards (Guest) 3 Antti Vuolas 4 Leon Flint (Guest) 5 Troy Batchelor 6 Sam McGurk 7 Paul Starke