SWINDON Robins team manager Alun Rossiter insisted that the positives outweighed the negatives despite tasting defeat in their first home meeting of the 2017 campaign.

Having picked up a losing bonus point in their narrow defeat to Leicester Lions at Beaumont Park last Saturday, Swindon headed back to the Abbey looking to get their first win under their belts against Belle Vue Aces.

The fine spring weather saw a bumper crowd turn out at Blunsdon but, with the sun setting behind the pits, a slow start from the hosts left them chasing for the entire meeting.

Swindon were left behind the eight-ball by the end of heat 12, needing maximums from their remaining three heats and despite the Aussie duo of Jason Doyle and Nick Morris securing two, they came up just short, falling to a 46-44 defeat.

“It was a negative that we lost but I think we can take a lot of positives against a very strong Belle Vue side, especially only losing by two points in the end,” said Rossiter.

“If you look at the team, I think everybody chipped in.

“You could point the finger and say we lost because of Adam Ellis, but I am not going to knock him.

“He has had a night to forget. That is not going to happen again.

“He twisted his bike in the first race, jumped on the other one and then we got him to go back on his original bike and it was twisted and that is why he fell in the last race.

“If he had got three or four points, we would have won.

“None of the boys will be putting any dirt on him, I certainly won’t.

“I have just had a nice long chat with him and just told him to go home, get his bike straightened and to come back big and strong for Rye House on Saturday.”

Belle Vue, buoyed by their performance in a narrow Knockout Cup defeat at Poole Pirates the night before, got off to a fine start as Steve Worrall, Jack Smith, former Robin Justin Sedgmen and skipper Craig Cook all recorded heat wins to give them a 15-9 advantage by the end of the fourth heat.

David Bellego, who caught the eye scoring nine points on his home debut, picked up Swindon’s first heat win of the night in heat five, followed up by skipper Jason Doyle in the next race to reduce the deficit to four points by the hallway stage.

However, when Bradley Wilson-Dean fell in heat 10, the visitors had stretched their lead back out to eight points.

When Kenneth Bjerre and Dan Bewley capitalised on Ellis falling from second place in heat 12 to record their second maximum of the night, Swindon were left needing top scores from their remaining three heats to just tie with Belle Vue.

Swindon showed their fighting spirit however, as Doyle and Morris teamed up well in heat 13 to shut out Cook to lead from the first bend.

Another maximum for the Australian pair saw Swindon reduce the deficit to just two points in heat 15 and prevent the Aces walking away with three points.

“Everybody has got stuck in. Zach (Wajtknecht) had a good night, Bradley got stuck in and David had a fantastic night,” added Rossiter.

“I didn’t expect David to start off as well as he has done but he seems really fired up at the moment, which is a great sign.

“The negative is, yes, we lost but the positives are that I can see there is a bit of light at the end of the tunnel.”

Swindon will be sweating on the fitness of Emil Grondal after the Swindon reserve suffered a freak accident at the start of heat 14.

Having made his way to the tapes, Grondal ended up flipping his bike and fell off the back, with the bike landing on him.

The Danish youngster showed courage to pick himself up and return to the start line and Rossiter is hopeful that he will be fit to face Rye House Rockets in the first leg of the Knock-Out Cup on Saturday.

“Emil found out a circlip was missing on his clutch basket and the countershaft kept moving and that is why he looped it at the start of heat 14,’’ added the Robins team boss.

“Emil went out really winded in his last race and he got stuck in and Bradley is learning every week.

“He is quite winded but hopefully he will be okay for Saturday.”