TWO FINALS TO COME FOR THE PIRATES

16/10/23

The Pirates have to overcome a four point first leg defeat on Saturday (20th) to retain the Knockout Cup that has proudly resided at Wimborne Road since 2021.

Standing in their way of a cup hat-trick are the Scunthorpe Scorpions who themselves are looking for their maiden lift of this trophy and have been one of the best performing teams at Wimborne Road this season. But Northern team manager Gary Havelock believes that the rich vein of camarederie amongst the Poole side could be a big factor towards BSN Series holders Poole winning their second trophy of their campaign. "I have been very impressed with the team spirit that exists in this team. It was typified by Richard [Lawson] on Sunday in heat fifteen when he quite willingly sacrificed the best gate to Zach [Cook]. That ethos is so important you know and I am can assure you that this group of lads are determined to get the job done down at Poole."

Poole promoter Dan Ford, who witnessed the narrow defeat in North Lincolnshire claimed "I guess we are only one good heat advantage down, a 5-1 and we are back on level terms. What we can't afford is get off to a start like we did against Glasgow, but provided we settle early then I would hope we shouldn't have too many problems in pulling that deficit back. But we know it is going to be tough. Dougie [Ryan Douglas] and Drew [Kemp] showed us last time they were here just how much they enjoy riding our circuit and with Dougie having confirmed that he won't be racing at this level next season I am sure he will want to go out on a high. But there is good confidence in our camp and the boys feel that they owe it to the fans to produce a good result on Saturday, so the stage is set for an interesting and exciting conclusion to this cup final."

Teams: Poole (43) - 1 Richard Lawson 2 Rider Replacement for Anders Rowe 3 Ben Cook 4 Zach Cook 5 Steve Worrall (Capt) 6 Kyle Newman 7 Joe Thompson Team manager Neil Middeditch
Scunthorpe (47) - 1 Ryan Douglas 2 Simon Lambert (Capt) 3 Connor Mountain 4 Jake Allen 5 Michael Palm-Toft 6 Drew Kemp 7 Nathan Ablitt Team Manager Rob Godfrey