SWINDON Robins team manager Alun Rossiter paid tribute to the ‘Abbey roar’ as his side came from eight points down to snatch a 46-44 meeting win at home to Wolverhampton on Thursday night.

Rossiter’s septet never led at any point throughout the night until heat 15 when a sensational blast from the back by Tobiasz Musielak saw the Pole join Jason Doyle at the front for a result-altering 5-1.

And while the exploits of his riders were something close to miraculous, the team manager must take a lot of credit for a couple of key moments in the meeting.

Selecting Doyle as a tactical substitute in heat 12 gave the home side vital late momentum while selecting the same pair in the deciding heat meant three points rather than potentially none.

Rossiter said: “It was a tough decision (to put Musielak in heat 15) because Troy was forced to jump on his second bike in one race and then he was a bit unfortunate in heat 13 – Sam Masters pulled his arm off the bike down the back straight which messed him up.

“So it was a tough decision, but again, it was that gut feeling and my gut told me Tobi.

“Sometimes you’re a winner with things like that, sometimes you’re not.

“I always go with my gut, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. That’s the way the cookie crumbles.”

Down by eight points as late as heat 10, the bumper Abbey crowd shouted loudest as their hometown heroes battled hard to rescue themselves from what could have been an extremely detrimental result in terms of the Robins’ play-off aspirations.

The Swindon team manager said he feels every emotion a home fan should feel in a meeting such as Thursday night’s and thanked the Abbey faithful for roaring his team home in the latter stages.

Rossiter said: “The adrenaline was running all night – it was pretty tense – and I feel worn out now.

“You stand there and you can’t help but get involved with the emotion of it all.

“The highs, the lows – it was looking low at one point and we hard to do the hard work, but full credit to everybody involved tonight, they all pulled their weight.

“I think they probably heard the roar down at the County Ground tonight or in the town centre.

“The roar was unbelievable – we always say about the Abbey roar – when she roars, she roars.”