Swindon Robins make it back-to-back wins over SGB Premiership leaders Belle Vue Aces

With skipper Jason Doyle missing out, having seen his foot injury flare up again in Poland, few gave Rossiter’s side any hope of recording a victory on Thursday night at the Abbey.

However, they proved their doubters wrong with a convincing 48-42 victory, despite having to use a rider replacement for their number one slot.

Those travelling up the M6 to Manchester last night would have been even more doubtful of returning to Wiltshire with anything to their name but again Rossiter’s side came up trumps.

Like Thursday, Swindon suffered an early setback, losing the first heat 5-1, but responded with back-to-back maximums of their own in heats six and seven to put them in control of the encounter.

When Troy Batchelor, standing in for Doyle, and Tobiasz Musielak secured a maximum in heat 11, the meeting was all but there’s and they kept their nerve to record a 49-35 win, with the wet weather curtailing the meeting prior to heat 15.

However, Rossiter is keeping his feet firmly on the ground, with his side having closed the gap to the play-off places to just two points.

“There’s no statement of intent,” he said.

“There is a long way to go and we’ve got to keep going.

“We’re just below the play-off spots and now this seven points has really put us back in the mix.

“We’ve still got a few games in hand and we’ve got a lot of home matches to come.

“Thursday was a fantastic win. We just regrouped tonight, when they did the track grade and we said this is definitely doable now.

“We were eight points up and I just said, ‘keep doing what we’re doing, don’t make the same mistakes, and keep focussed’.

“I’m more focussed on making sure they are keeping an eye on the track and how the track and conditions change.”

Having fallen behind early on, it took until heat four for Swindon to record their first heat victory of the night when Jack Smith went down in the lead and Nick Morris took full advantage.

Swindon were back on level terms a race later as Batchelor showed his pace to come out of bend two in the lead, pushed all the way by Max Fricke.

Morris flew out of the gate in heat five and Adam Ellis put up a real battle with Kenneth Bjerre for second spot, pipping him to the line on the last lap to secure the visitor’s first maximum of the evening.

David Bellego then got away well from gate three in heat seven and was supported down the back straight by Bradley Wilson-Dean as Swindon made it back-to-back maximums.

Tobiasz Musielak was disqualified in heat eight for touching the tapes and replaced by Ellis, who teamed up with Zach Wajtknecht to salvage a share of the spoils.

Belle Vue closed the gap back down to four points in heat nine as former Robin Rohan Tungate took Morris out of bend two before fellow countryman Max Fricke secured the maximum on the last lap.

With the rain starting to fall in Manchester, Swindon’s lead was restored in heat 11 when Batchelor pulled away from the start and was joined at the front by Musielak flying out of bend two for a maximum, with Craig Cook packing up late on.

The interval was cut short to ensure the races could get in and after a share of the points in heat 12, Swindon secured their victory as Batchelor and Morris teamed up for a maximum in heat 13 as they both hauled in Bjerre.

Tungate suffered a nasty fall into bend three of the opening lap in heat 14, which saw him disqualified, as Bellego took the win and with the meeting being called to a close before the final race of the night, secured a 14-point win.

Kiwi Bradley Wilson-Dean top scored for the visitors with a maximum paid 12 to the delight of Rossiter, who put it down to new equipment.

“He had a brand new engine, which he bought, and used it for one meeting and it blew up,” he added.

“He only got it back today and, my god, welcome to the team Bradley.

“We’ve been waiting for that for a long time.

“If Bradley drops down to reserve, I won’t be worried if he can ride like that.”

With Doyle still expected to be absent for Swindon’s trip to Leicester Lions on Monday night, the Swindon boss sees no reason why they can’t head to Beaumont Park full of confidence.

“Seven points, two meetings, it’s not bad,” Rossiter said.

“If we can get some more points on Monday, which we’ve got to go there believing that; we’ve just beaten one of the best teams in the league on their own patch.

“It’s a totally different track but the way we are gating at the moment, we’re all focussed and hopefully, come Wednesday, we’ll have our skipper back.”