REACTION: PIRATES FEEL GOOD JUST FOUR DOWN AT CUP HALF-TIME

Poole 'Wessex Marine' Pirates' retention of the Knockout Cup remains finely balanced ahead of this week's second leg at Wimborne Road after they held the Scunthorpe Scorpions to just a four point advantage in North Lincolnshire on Sunday.
 

The 'Attis Insurances' Scorpions ran out 47-43 first leg winners, a result that Pirates' team manager Gary Havelock claimed "if you had offered me that before the start of the meeting I would have bit your hand off! The guys did well today, they put the disappointment of last week behind them, and that was immense I can tell you, and all worked really hard to keep things as tight as possible. I've said it before, but these guys are so great you know and easy to work with. My job has just really been to keep a watch on some of the little things and offer advice, but they know what is expected of them and know what they need to do. They have put us in  a good position and I will do everything I possibly can to get down to Poole for the second leg, but be assured if I can't be there in person I will be there in spirit."

Poole's Zach Cook demonstrated his liking for the Eddie Wright Raceway once again and returned the highest score across both teams with fourteen points from six rides which included three race wins, two coming on the bounce in heats seven and eight, which certainly helped to stabilise the meeting, with the home side having slowly built up  a six point lead within the first batch of rides. 
Zach, the younger of the two Cook siblings that have served the Pirates so well all season said "yeah I felt good. I enjoyed it out there today, scored a couple of points so it was nice. The good thing about this track is it's a nice shape and there are plenty of racing lines if you know where to be and it's enjoyable. We had to put last week behind us but also use it as a bit of fire as well  and we kept it tight so it's all to play for on Wednesday."

SCUNTHORPE 47 - Ryan Douglas 13 (3,3,2,2,3) ,Drew Kemp 10+1 (2,1,1',3,3) ,Michael Palm-Toft 8+1 (3,2,1,1',1) ,Jake Allen 6 (1,0,3,2) ,Simon Lambert 6 (3,2,0,1) ,Connor Mountain 3 (1,0,2,0) ,Nathan Ablitt 1+1 (1',0,RS,0) 
POOLE 43 - Zach Cook 14 (2,3,3,1,3,2) ,Richard Lawson 10 (2,3,2,3,0) ,Steve Worrall 6 (2,2,2,0) ,Ben Cook 6 (0,1,3,2) ,Joe Thompson 4 (0,3,0,0,1) ,Kyle Newman 3+2 (0,1,1',1',0,0)