'No excuses' from promoter Ford after disappointing play-off campaign

Co-promoter Danny Ford offered no excuses after watching his 2019 side crash out of the Premiership play-offs and insisted the Pirates had been beaten by a better team.

Despite carrying a 10-point advantage into last night’s semi-final second leg at Ipswich, the Pirates succumbed to a 54-36 defeat at Foxhall, as the Witches prevailed 94-86 on aggregate.

Thirty of the Pirates’ 36 points came from just three riders in Nicolai Klindt (12+1), Josh Grajczonek (10+2) and Nico Covatti (8) with number one Brady Kurtz (3+1) enduring a night to forget and Jack Holder withdrawing with a foot injury after only two rides and without having troubled the scorers.

And with reserves Thomas H Jonasson and Ricky Wells managing only three points between them, Ford admitted the Witches deserved their place in the Grand Final.

Ford said: “I’m really disappointed with how we performed last night.

“Ipswich were much, much better than us on the night and put in a much better team performance, so they deserved to go through and I won’t make any excuses.

“One thing going out at this stage does prove is that finishing top of the league didn’t really do us any favours.

“I think there’s no doubt the best four teams finished in the play-offs, but finishing top didn’t really give us any advantage because we were always going to face a tough team, whoever we picked.”

Ford, meanwhile, confirmed the Pirates and Kings Lynn were trying to agree a date to stage their remaining Supporters’ Cup tie at Wimborne Road, which was washed out in June.

Read the full report and scores from last night’s meeting here.