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WITH a 3am start this morning to catch a flight to Lezsno, Alun Rossiter needed to get a good night's sleep.

But the Robins manager may well have been kept awake by the dream start which almost turned into a nightmare last night.

Rosco watched his side come close to throwing away a 10-point lead during the Elite League meeting against Coventry Bees at Blunsdon, eventually winning by six points thanks to a final heat 5-1.

The boss is off to Poland to take in the second round of the Grand Prix series, but while he watches the best riders in the world, he will no doubt be trying to work out how to keep his troops consistently at the top of their game.

"We seem to be a bit lackadaisical at home on the odd occasion and that's a bit worrying," Rossiter admitted.

"It's something that we need to take a look at, address and kill sides off a lot earlier.

"It was looking comfortable at one point, but we knew that they would come back strong with Harris on the tactical ride.

"But when they did it (tactical ride) Troy went out and beat him, which was good because they didn't gain much from it.

"Unfortunately though a 5-1 in heat 14 put the cat amongst the pigeons. We had to make sure we were focussed on the last heat and luckily it all went our way."

Robins made a flying start to the meeting with three consecutive 4-2s from the first three heats.

Typically, Leigh Adams set the tone with an opening heat win, followed by Seb Alden and Mads Korneliussen in heats two and three respectively.

Heat six saw Swindon record their first 5-1 of the evening and it epitomised everything this season's new-look side is about.

Adams and James Wright put on a fantastic display of team riding to take the maximum points, with the Robins skipper superbly protecting his young English teammate all the way round from the threat of Simon Stead and Stanislaw Burza.

However the meeting began to turn, and heat 13 pitted the two captains together for the second time, with Harris gaining revenge for his opening heat defeat at the hands of Adams.

The victory was never in doubt from the moment the English Grand Prix star passed Adams on the second bend, leaving him trailing in his wake as he recorded three points by a considerable margin.

Barker and Billy Janniro's 5-1 for Coventry in heat 14 meant that the Robins would now have to fight tooth and nail for the win that at one point looked a formality.

They were dealt a helping hand, however, when the Bees shot themselves in the foot as Harris was penalised for touching the tapes.

He went off the 15-metre handicap but things turned from bad to worse for the skipper as, having made up ground on Adams and Batchelor and pushing for second place, he clipped the latter and was excluded, with the 5-1 being awarded to the Robins to seal the victory.

9:00am Friday 9th May 2008

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