SWINDON Robins boss Alun Rossiter remains optimistic about his side’s chances of success this season, despite slipping to a 50-40 loss against Somerset Rebels at the Oak Tree Arena tonight.

The Rebels secured a 5-1 in the final race of the night to deny Rossiter’s men a consolation point in the west country, meaning the Robins missed a golden opportunity to regain top spot in the SGB Premiership table.

Only Troy Batchelor (13) hit double figures for the Robins as Nick Morris, Adam Ellis, Tobiasz Musielak and David Bellego managed to score 21 points between them.

Despite another 10-point defeat, Rossiter remains confident his men can bounce back in tomorrow night's table topping clash against Wolverhampton Wolves at the Abbey Stadium (7.30pm).

He said: “Inconsistency in the top five cost us again.

“We’ve got a powerful top five but the points they got is where it’s hurting, we should at least be picking up points.

“I can’t blame the reserves. It’s down to them to be better than they are.

“We’re back at home but we’ve got to pick points up on the road.

“We did it at Poole and we did it at Leicester.

“Our one to five should be scoring seven or eight, at least seven. But they didn’t do that tonight.”

Reserve pairing Zach Wajtknecht and Jack Smith also experienced a mixed night.

Wajtknecht won heat two but could only record 1+1 from his remaining four rides while Smith posted two points but failed to beat an opponent.

Rossiter backed his British youngsters though and was pleased with the speed they displayed throughout the night.

“The reserves were on the pace,” said Rossiter.

“Zach was on the pace and rode well, Jack has just come in and I would’ve kept him in (some of his races) but there’s not a lot you can do when you’ve got three of your top five riders not scoring great.

“Tobiasz (Musielak) is making silly mistakes by moving at the start, that’s not the first time this year.

“I’m not too stressed, we’ve got some home meetings coming up, but these boys should be scoring more than what they are.”