ALUN Rossiter has challenged his Swindon side to go top of the Elite League by the end of Monday evening, as he looks to rev up his riders ahead of the regular season run-in.


The Robins are guaranteed to hit the summit of the British top-flight if they win at Birmingham tonight and at home to Poole on Monday, which would see them displace the latter outfit at the top.


The last time Swindon visited Birmingham’s Perry Barr home was way back in April, when they stormed to an impressive 53-37 victory, and now Rossiter wants his men to serve up the perfect starter to Monday’s mouthwatering clash with the Pirates.


“We’ve got six points from the last three meetings and we’ve got a fantastic chance of going top on Monday,” said Rossiter.


“That’s a great carrot to have dangling in front of you.


“Yes, we know we won comfortably at Birmingham last time, but they will obviously be a bit sore about that.


“It wasn’t a freak result, you can only praise the boys for what they did last time as they were on form on the day.


“I think we’ve got the personnel to go and do a job there again. It’s not a hard track to ride so we should go there with confidence.


“It’s all about momentum and keeping it going, and while they have got play-off aspirations, I believe in my personnel.”


Brummies boss Graham Drury is only too aware how tough it will be for his men when they host Swindon this evening, following the heavy defeat they suffered at the hands of the Blunsdon boys earlier this term.


“Swindon are a team everyone wants to see, they have turned things around after last season,” he said.


“They’ve beaten us once here already this season so we know what a tough ask it will be and we are going to need the riders, management and all our supporters to put everything into this meeting.”


Birmingham will make a late decision on whether to include Danny King after the skipper sustained rib damage in a crash in Monday’s British Final. Ex-Brummies man Kyle Newman guests at reserve for the injured Tomasz Piszcz.
Nick Morris comes back into the Robins side in the only change in personnel from last week’s 53-38 victory over Eastbourne.