SWINDON skipper Nick Morris suggested staying injury free could be Robins’ key to further SGB Premiership success ahead of tonight’s home clash against Poole Pirates (7.30pm)

Alun Rossiter’s men suffered their first competitive loss of the season at King’s Lynn on Wednesday after a 31+4 combined performance by Robert Lambert and Lewis Kerr earned the Norfolk outfit a convincing 51-39 win over the defending champions.

Swindon welcome a patchy Poole Pirates side to the Abbey Stadium this evening, and hopes of a second win already this season over the Dorset club are high.

Morris, who top-scored for the Robins in Norfolk last week with 11+3, said his men must remain focussed and not fall into the trap of reading too much into the league table at an early stage.

“It’s early days, the table doesn’t mean a lot yet,” said Morris. “There are still five months left in this season, we’ve got to stay injury free.”

A poor start for tonight’s opponents has forced promoter Matt Ford into making early team changes as British reserve James Shanes departs for ex-Robins rider Stefan Nielson.

Nielson celebrated life as a Pirate by registering a six-ride paid maximum for Championship club Scunthorpe Scorpions on Saturday night.

But Morris himself enters the meeting full on confidence.

He said: “I felt pretty good at King’s Lynn. At the end I started to make some starts and had speed in the bike.

“I was lacking a bit of grip but I can’t complain. I had speed all night but in the first few heats I wasn’t making starts. Later on in the meeting we got it working.”

Last Wednesday’s defeat means Robins enter tonight’s meeting joint top of the SGB Premiership with Wolverhampton having secured 10 points from four meetings.

A tough night in Norfolk will have little bearing on the result tonight though as Morris insists his men will bounce back.

“It was a tough night, but it’s not the end of the world,” said Morris.

“King’s Lynn are a good team and a couple of the guys didn’t have the night they would’ve liked but we’ll move onto tonight at home to Poole.

“Robert (Lambert) goes really well around King’s Lynn and he had the bike working good.

“We didn’t have an answer for him, I had a good race with him but he had a bit of speed on me.”

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