Kelvin Tatum - Sky Sports Expert

Poole of talent

Kelvin says injury-hit Poole can stop runaway leaders Swindon

Posted: 02nd May 2008 15:16

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Speedway Bjarne Pedersen Poole Pirates

Pedersen: aiming to halt the Robins on Monday night Fotospeedway.pl

The Pirates are beginning to find their form having shown their class in midweek with a 58-34 demolition of the Coventry Bees in the Craven Shield semi-final.

Kelvin Tatum
Quotes of the week

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I backed Swindon to beat Eastbourne last week and they came through, I didn't expect them to win by quite so many. One thing you can be sure about so far in the Elite League is that the Robins certainly are in top form.

They are stealing a little bit of a march on everybody else and surprising a lot of people along the way - all credit to them, they are doing the business!

Leigh Adams, as ever, was superb last Monday night, and Mads Korneliussen is another rider who is going great guns and also a young Aussie rider, Troy Batchelor had an absolutely fabulous ride at the end of the night.

And if you were to ask the management also I think they would agree on the fact that they are all pulling together, but those three riders in particular looked pretty good on Monday night.

Although they have an already commanding six point lead, I think it would be highly unlikely that they would run away with the league at this stage. But at the start of the season I said that they probably wouldn't be a top four side so what do I know!

But its a long season and teams such as Poole and Lakeside have had a few injury problems and I think the league will tighten up as the season progresses, but you can't deny that they've had a fantastic start to the season and it puts them in a strong position, with two away victories already the play-off position is theirs to lose at this stage in the season.

Injury-hit

Poole have had a quietish start primarily because they've had a couple of injuries Adam Skornicki got hurt at a time when he was flying and they've also lost Zibi Suchecki who has broken a leg and is going to be out for some time.

I think they are certainly beginning to show their true potential.

And they are coping well without Jason Crump, who returned to Belle Vue. It's never easy to do without a two-time world champion, but the way that Matt Ford and Mike Golding have built their team I think they've covered the bases well with the new point average.

But despite their problems, of late, the Pirates are just beginning to hit their stride and with young Chris Holder stepping up, he's already had a maximum, he's backing the team up with Davey Watt and Bjarne Pedersen.

The Pirates are yet to win on their travels having recorded four wins from four at home but I if they had been at full strength I'm sure that wouldn't be the case.

Unfortunately that hasn't happened so far but I still think they'll make the top four this year; I haven't changed my opinion on that.

Kelvin's call

HOME WIN - It's a difficult one because with the Robins having been in such fantastic form they could very well go there and win, but I'm going to stay faithful to the Pirates. I think that they're beginning to find their form, it will be close but I think the Pirates will just shade it on Monday night.

Comments

Kevin Newton says...

I'm a Poole fan, but was very disapointed, that Leigh adams was adjugded to have touched the tapes in heat 11, in last nights meeting. The refereeing in speedway has always been a standing joke, but with the advent of sky sports camera's I thought they might start to get it wright. But last night was one of the worst dicisions I think I have ever seen, even all your experts were wrong. It was so clear that the other Swindon rider pushed the tapes out and they only touched adams wheel on the way back, that why Adams thought it was the wind that caused them to touch his wheel, so the other rider Mr Wright should have been penalised. Your camera,s only wanted to look at Leigh Adams wheel touching the tapes and never took into account what the other rider did. If with sky sports camera's not producing a fair view and all your experts shouting for adams to be penalised how can we ever get the referee to do his job. Have another look a bit closer ??.

Posted 11:17 6th May 2008

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