A BACK page story from Poole Pirates star Chris Holder proved to be the perfect inspiration for Alun Rossiter’s Swindon Robins as they kept their Elite League play-off hopes alive with a 50-42 victory over the reigning champions.

Instead of a team talk the Swindon boss sent the article, where Holder claimed that Poole were still too good for the Robins despite the addition of Pirates asset Darcy Ward, to his team.

That proved to spark the fire in their bellies as Swindon secured a convincing win over Poole, with Ward scoring a paid 12 points in his home debut against his parent club.

“I got a message sent through to me saying that they are still better than us, so I sent that round to the boys and said ‘here you go boys, here’s your inspiration’,” said Rossiter.

“I’m not saying it’s the riders. You know what newspapers are like, they like to build anything up and fair play to them.

“I just think it gave our boys a bit of inspiration and it was probably the easiest track walk and talk I have given.

“They knew how big the challenge was ahead of them tonight, they just went out and smashed it and it’s great.”

Swindon were boosted by the return of captain Tory Batchelor from injury, with Hans Andersen coming in to replace Nick Morris.

The highly-anticipated first heat lived up to the hype as Holder took the lead out of the first corner, before pulling up coming out of the second corner to gift Ward the lead.

Behind him Eduard Krcmar flipped his bike on the penultimate corner before getting to his feet and pushing his vehicle for the remainder of the lap to earn his hardest point in speedway.

However, it looked like the first meeting between these sides earlier in the season was about to repeat itself when heat two finished in a nasty accident.

Charles Wright took Paul Starke underneath on the last corner, forcing the Poole reserve to pull up and he lost control of his bike taking out Lewis Rose, who was caught between Starke and the barrier, before being helped into the back of an ambulance with a shoulder and wrist injury that ruled him out of the rest of the meeting.

But fellow reserve Wright stepped up to the plate, as he even earned a share of the points when he beat Poole’s reserves of Starke and Kyle Newman in heat 12.

“Similar to Sam Masters on Saturday, it’s a nasty one,” added Rossiter.

“It’s a shame because we were just starting to get Lewis going, he was really starting to battle and he is in the mix now and it is just gutting that he ended up doing that, really.

“I thought the black cat had struck again.

“I’m going to wait to see him and see how it goes.

“It actually worked out alright for us in the end, with Charles coming in.

“The important race, when he was out on his own, he went out and won.”

Aussie Ward continued to look impressive after his heat one win as he followed Batchelor home in a maximum in heat seven, which had seen both Dakota North and Kacper Gomolski both excluded.

An impressive overtaking manoeuvre in heat 11 saw him take Maciej Janowski around the outside of the second corner to take the win before he also claimed victory in heat 13 to secure the win for the Robins.

“I have got to be honest I did play it down when I said don’t expect 15 from Darcy,” said Rossiter about the young star.

“In my heart of hearts, after watching him in practice, I knew he was ready.

“He is a special talent, but you can’t get carried away with one rider.

“We have got six other riders, and yes Darcy is exceptional and he has really helped the team and I think he has lifted the team.

“Troy has lifted his game, Nick will be back next meeting and the whole thing just gave the team a lift.

“One rider doesn’t make a team, but yes he was outstanding.”

The eight-point victory has put Swindon back in contention for a play-off place come the end of the season but Rossiter knows his side must turn around their away form, in what is going to be a tough run-in with two visits to both Poole and Coventry Bees in the waiting.

“We have got to get some away points and that heat 13 cost us on Saturday (against Leicester), but that has gone now and we have got to move on and now focus on the rest of the season,” said Rossiter.

“Our season just needed a kick start. We had to win and we did it.

“Everyone has chipped in and done a great job.”