REACTION: PIRATES ON BACK FOOT AFTER INDIFFERENT START IN GLASGOW

If the Poole 'Wessex Marine' Pirates fail to retain their two-times winning Championship league title they will reflect on the indifferent start they made in the first six heats, in particular, of their twice-delayed first leg at Glasgow.
 

After a disappointing string of eight heats, during which they couldn't produce a race winner, the Pirates eventually managed to contain the Tigers by not conceding a heat from the ninth onwards.

Steve Worrall became the first Poole winner in that ninth heat, ably supported by Kyle Newman's third place and then after the Cook brothers [Ben and Zach] had been denied a follow-up advantage by the brilliance of play-off heartbreaker Chris Harris in the tenth, Joe Thompson starred in heat eleven when he managed re-pass the hitherto unbeaten Vadim Tarasenko to back up Richard Lawson's only victory of the night. That reduced Glasgow's lead to fourteen and with the final four races all ending up as shared points, it is that margin that Poole have to recover on Wednesday.

Poole team manager Neil Middleditch, making a rare appearance in the North, admitted "it's a big advantage that they (Glasgow) have but I don't believe it is insurmountable. It was looking a bit grim early doors I will admit, but the boys dug in and managed to get it back to fourteen. They all did their best, Glasgow came out fighting real strong and a few things didn't quite go our way, but hey, this is a Grand Final between two good sides and there is still a long way to go. We might be down, but we are far from out."

GLASGOW 52  - Chris Harris 14+1 (2',3,3,3,3) ,Ben Basso 10+1 (2',3,2,3,0) ,Tom Brennan 9+2 (3,2',3,0,1') ,Lee Complin 9 (3,1,RS,1,R,2,2) ,Vadim Tarasenko 9 (3,3,3,0,0) ,Ace Pijper 1 (1,0,0,RS,0) ,Jack Smith DNR

POOLE 38 - Steve Worrall 9+1 (2,1,3,2,1') ,Richard Lawson 9+1 (1,2,3,1',2) ,Zach Cook 8+2 (1,1',2,1',3) ,Ben Cook 6 (N2,2,2,2) ,Kyle Newman 4+1 (0,2,N2,0,1,1') ,Joe Thompson 2+1 (X0,1',0,R,RS,1,0)