SWINDON Robins chief Alun Rossiter is determined his riders will provide a response to their Good Friday mauling at Poole Pirates, although he was made to wait after yesterday’s reunion was rained off.

Swindon were hammered 61-31 by the reigning champions in Dorset on Friday afternoon and were set to clash with Poole once again at the Abbey Stadium on Easter Sunday.

But heavy rainfall put paid to that encounter and Rossiter’s troops were instead left to shift focus towards Thursday’s home meeting with Coventry Bees (tapes-up 7.45pm).

The Robins team manager admitted that he was far from pleased with his riders’ display as they were put to the sword by the Pirates – Swindon won just a single heat – but denied that revenge would have been on their minds had they renewed hostilities with Poole almost immediately, with Sunday’s postponed meeting rearranged for April 14.

“I don’t like it when I read ‘Robins out for revenge’. I hate the word revenge,” said Rossiter.

“It’s not to do with revenge at all. We would have wanted to show what we really could do but now we’ve got to focus on Coventry instead.

“I had some words with them after Friday. It’s not that I’m panicking but it wasn’t the performance I was expecting and they know that, and know that I want to see a response.

“There were a few problems too. Nick Morris was using fuel from last season that he’d left behind and it was in containers but water must have got in somehow – things like that happen.

“We would have liked to ride on Sunday and we could have got some new faces in. Poole would have brought a few fans too. But the weather forecast was horrendous. I know it brightened up on Sunday afternoon for a while but the rain came back.”

Sunday’s postponement did at least allow the Robins to get on the road to spread some Easter cheer.

The club were planning to hand out Easter eggs at the Abbey Stadium but Rossiter, Nick Morris and Justin Sedgmen instead headed to the children’s unit at the Great Western Hospital.

Swindon Speedway’s new marketing executive Stella Watson said: “We were planning to give away Easter eggs to all the children attending the meeting versus Poole.

“Sadly the weather got the better of us but with 250 Easter eggs going spare we spent the afternoon at the GWH and Nick Morris and Justin Sedgmen together with team boss Alun Rossiter met some very courageous youngsters who, despite their illnesses, still love chocolate.’’