RONNIE Russell has ordered his Swindon reserves to expose their Wolverhampton counterparts in the teams’ Elite League clash at Monmore Green tonight.

Wolves have arguably the strongest heat leader trio in Britain in Freddie Lindgren, Peter Karlsson and Tai Woffinden but have struggled in the lower order so far this season, with Ricky Wells and Californian rookie Tyson Burmeister failing to rack up the points expected of them.

And team boss Russell wants Justin Sedgmen and the recalled Cory Gathercole to attack the Wolves pair, as he believes that battle will prove crucial if the Robins are to take points away from the West Midlands.

“I’ll be saying to those two boys that they are the ones that could potentially turn this round for us,” said Russell.

“Wolverhampton do look vulnerable at reserve, and they do have to take their rides, so if we can make sure we beat them on each occasion, that may give us the edge.

“We don’t want their reserves to become confident.”

Russell warned his team to expect a far different Wolves performance to the one that saw them lose 51-42 to Poole seven days ago, their first Elite League defeat on home shale in more than two years.

“They are going to be really fired up for tomorrow after losing last week,” he said.

“Peter Adams (Wolves manager) is good at his job and he will spell out in no uncertain terms what he expects. They won’t lay down and die like they did against Poole.”

Swindon skipper Simon Stead will ride tonight despite not being fully fit following his recent rib problems, while Josh Grajczonek will be sacrificed in favour of Gathercole in the only change made to the starting septet from last week’s challenge meeting draw with Lakeside.

Russell also revealed that both he and co-owners Terry Russell and Gary Patchett were still intensely hunting a replacement for broken thigh victim Grzegorz Zengota, but admitted the search was proving extremely difficult.

“We’re having a drastic time and people must not think for one moment that we’re happy with the situation,” he said.

“We seem to start off in the morning and move 20 rungs up the ladder and by the evening we’ve come down that many rungs, that we’re past the bottom. It’s just a nightmare.

“There’s a real resistance from clubs in Europe to let their riders come over here because of the silencer situation.”

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