PREVIEW: PIRATES PUSHING FOR POLE POSITION - **MATCHDAY UPDATE**

Poole 'Wessex Marine' Pirates' skipper Steve Worrall is ready for another 'important meeting' on  Wednesday night's when the Dorset side host the visit of the Redcar Bears, the first of two big Wimborne Road encounters in the space of five days as the Pirates also host Edinburgh next Sunday.

After the Pirates claimed a stunning 'come-back' victory at Scunthorpe last Friday Steve stated "obviously that was an important meeting and win for us after losing that bonus point on Wednesday at Poole last week, which had left a bit of a sour taste because we knew how important that one was on our quest to finish top. But winning here and getting the bonus point kind of gets us back on that path to finishing top. We are back in the hunt for it and we just got to hope that Oxford find things tough on their travels but it is still possible. That said, where we currently are is not a bad place to be you know. We are in a position where we are investing all this energy and effort in to trying to finish top whilst there are some other clubs that are literally scraping to just make the play-offs. It is a good position for us to be in and a good mentally to have. If you finish top, you finish top for a reason. That's where we want to be as it gives us the opportunity to choose our opponents , but I guess it is a little bit out of our total control right now, so we just have to wait and see, give it our all in our remaining few meetings starting with Redcar on Wednesday."

"Obviously that means they will be bringing Danny King with him and he led us to two league victories and I have no doubt he will be passing on as much information as he can to the rest of his new team. He knows every inch of this track really and you pair him up with Charles Wright who is an out-and-out racer who will give it a 110%  it will definitely make heat thirteen and fifteen, if them guys are in it and on the pace, very interesting. "

Unfortunately, after sustaining a 'dead-leg' during Monday's British Final, a meeting in which Worrall finished second and earned the British GP wild-card slot, the Redcar skipper Charles Wright has been ruled out and so the visitors will operate rider replacement to cover the former British Champion, just as they did on Tuesday night when they beat the Plymouth Gladiators at the Coliseum, to move into third place in the table, just a point behind the Pirates. 

Looking closer at one of his teammates, Worrall had only good words to say about Anders Rowe, claiming  "we saw last week didn't we, put a number seven on his back and off he goes. He seems like an almost different rider. I just feel  that Anders, like most speedway riders, is big on confidence, a few race wins can change things massively , and you can really see that in him. Even in the pits he is like a different character and obviously for us that is brilliant and for him, in terms of progression it is fantastic."

Worrall, like Gary Havelock, acknowledged that his dropping to number five has balanced the team out for the better, but explained "my scores at Wolverhampton had been great and yet I would come to Poole and struggle a little bit, but obviously they are two very different tracks and certain things I had in mind about what I was doing here and what equipment I was using  just weren't working and it just so happened that, as I moved to number five, I also changed what I was doing and I noticed from the first meeting the difference and realised what a big mistake I had been making. 

"I don't mind being at number five, but to be honest I prefer to be at number one. A fresh track, coming from the outside gates, you know I just enjoy that, get the ball rolling quick, and then heat thirteen it is inside gate which suits me. Throughout my career I have not spent much time at number five, coming through the ranks early on as a second string and then being a number one, so it is new for me being at number five and in fairness you do get a bit more time between heats and gives me chance to relax a bit, I don't have to rush in from the parade and get ready for heat one, I quite enjoy that and you don't get filled in with all the stuff in the first heat, so that is a bonus, and I agree, it has balanced the team out better. 
"Richard (Lawson) enjoys being at number one, it seems to suit him better. We both have similar features to what we do, we are both good gaters and have plenty of speed and it works quite well generally when we are together."

It was confirmed over the weekend that injured Poole reserve Adam Roynon will not be fit to ride on Wednesday and his place in the Pirates line-up will be taken by 19 year old Warwickshire lad Joe Thompson. In similar fashion, the Bears will have Connor Coles deputising for the injured number seven, Jake Mulford. 

As well as two former British Champions in their septet the Bears also field current British U21 champion Connor Bailey and they also have seen a recent upturn in form from both Erik Riss and Jason Edwards and alongside former Pirate Danyon Hume the evenly balanced sides look set to put on a thrilling meeting, which includes nearly one third  of this year's British Final line-up with Worrall, Lawson, King, Wright and Hume all in Monday's meeting at Belle Vue.

With the Oxford Cheetahs not racing until next Friday, a win for Poole on Wednesday would put them level on league points and currently the Cheetahs have a race point difference of 103 compared to Poole's 94.

Teams
Poole - 1 Richard Lawson 2 Kyle Newman 3 Ben Cook 4 Zach Cook 5 Steve Worrall (Capt) 6 Anders Rowe 7 Joe Thompson (guest) - Team manager Neil Middleditch
Redcar - 1 Rider Replacement for Charles Wright 2 Danyon Hume 3 Connor Bailey 4 Erik Riss 5 Danny King (Capt) 6 Jason Edwards 7 Connor Coles (Guest) - Team manager Gavin Parr