7:51am Tuesday 15th April 2008
By Owen Houlihan
ROBINS rammed the gloomy predictions of the pundits back down their throats on an incredible night of drama at Foxhall Stadium last night.
Few gave Alun Rossiter's men a prayer of victory over a Witches side fancied to challenge for a play-off spot this term and there were even more dismissive comments regarding Swindon's own overall aspirations from the television experts before last night's action.
Instead, Rossiter saw the pre-season decision by himself and club co-owners Terry Russell and Gary Patchett to bank on youth pay handsome early dividends.
The likes of James Wright and Troy Batchelor have spent the opening few weeks of the season finding their feet in Blunsdon colours.
Last night though, they came of age as an experienced home line-up were put to the sword in stunning fashion.
While captain Leigh Adams and a red-hot Mads Korneliussen again piled up the points, Wright and Batchelor chipped in with crucial contributions.
And another bonus was the extraordinary paid 11 from guest reserve Joel Parsons, who more than made up for the badly-misfiring Seb Alden, the only disappointment on the night.
Rossiter said: "It was a great effort by the young lads. They have really stepped up.
"We've tried to get a team spirit going and you saw it here. It's easy to talk about team spirit, but these lads all want to do well.'' He added: "Joel has come in and done really well.
"He lifted himself, got involved with the team and the team have lifted him as well.'' Yet anyone suggesting that Swindon would depart with three Elite League points in the bank would have been karted off by men in white coats a third of the way into the meeting.
Unable to gate on a slippery surface, they trailed 17-7 after four heats and it took skipper Adams, sent out on a double points tactical ride by an increasingly desperate Rossiter, to notch their first win of the evening in the fifth.
Even then the Witches conceded just a 6-3 and with Poland's Jarek Hampel and skipper Chris Louis in ominous form, it still looked like a case of damage limitation for the visitors.
Geed up by their manager though, Robins suddenly found their feet.
Wright pulled a super heat win out of nowhere in the eighth.
Then Korneliussen did the same in a rerun 10, overcoming early bike trouble and a crash to register an opening win.
Significantly, he was followed home by Batchelor who had dusted himself down after being felled by Robert Miskowiak.
Stunned, Ipswich gradually started to make mistakes.
Falls and a tape exclusion in heats 11 allowed Rossiter's men to close the gap to just a single point as Adams asserted his authority over Hampel.
Still trailing by the narrowest of margins in the penultimate race, Korneliussen then won again with the other main hero of the night, Parsons, holding off his rivals to help Swindon into the lead for the first time after ex-Blunsdon rider Steve Johnston suffered a costly lock-up on the first bend.
Having demoralised their hosts, Adams and Korneliussen then rubbed salt into the wounds by outgunning Louis and Hampel to round off an astonishing night.
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