SWINDON Robin’s team manager Alun Rossiter was left feeling hugely frustrated despite claiming an 11-point advantage over the Belle Vue Aces in their SGB Premiership Knockout Cup semi-final clash.

The Abbey Stadium chief, who saw his side win the first-leg 50-39, felt one of the main factors throughout this meeting was referee Chris Gay ordering riders to re-run heats after movement on the tapes.

Aces’ reserve Jack Smith suffered an injury in the second heat, when he clashed with Bradley Wilson-Dean, which also brought the meeting to a standstill for almost an hour as he was taken to hospital by the stadium paramedic.

Despite this, the Robins chief says the main point is the hosts were able to claim a solid lead ahead of the second leg in a week’s time.

“I would have taken an 11-point lead and we have to take that with us now and make sure we don’t slip up in the away leg,” said Rossiter, who was unhappy with the referee.

“It was a very frustrating meeting for me. A number of times the riders penalised themselves and he should have just let it go.

“We are under a curfew and he (referee) is pulling races back for fun.

“He should have just let the races go, he’s got to think of the environment, people have houses right next door to us here, there was no thought what so ever.”

Away from the officials, Rossiter says he was happy with the performance put in by his troops throughout the stagnated meeting.

“I’m happy with how the riders performed. I mean Tobiasz didn’t have the best of nights and he got caught out with David, which he was a bit frustrated by,” he added.

“Hopefully, fingers crossed we can all come back together and come back strong.

“I was a bit worried about Bradley’s fitness after his fall, but he came back strong in the end.

“It’s a good advantage for us to take up there but it is still going to be tough because we don’t have Jason, so we are scouting around for a replacement.”