FORMER Pirates captain Alun Rossiter is asking for continuity from referees after he felt another "poor decision" went against his current side Swindon at Brandon.

The Robins' team manager, a prominent member of the Poole side that lifted the 1994 British League title, felt match official Margaret Vardy should have awarded Sebastian Ulamek victory in heat 10.

Vardy gave Coventry's Scott Nicholls the verdict on the line after he had cut up the inside off the final bend to look as though he had sneaked past Swindon's Ulamek on the run-in.

Instead of the race finishing 3-3, Coventry bagged a 4-2 and the Bees eventually lifted the Craven Shield by an aggregate margin of only two points from the Robins.

Rossiter said: "Seb is convinced he beat Nicholls on the line.

"That would have made the final scores level if the decision had gone our way.

"Some supporters came up to me after the meeting who had watched the video of the race in the bar and they said that Seb had got it as well.

"I refused to go onto the referee's phone at the time to complain because people just absolutely tell you that you look stupid when you do that (on TV).

"But those people who criticise you don't see it like I do and half the referees haven't ridden a motor bike.

"It is just one of those things. I spoke to (Coventry rider) Billy Janniro and he knows he got away with it (when Swindon's Damien Balinski was excluded from a race in the Elite League play-off final at Coventry earlier this month).

"Tonight's decision was very poor, but I wasn't going to go on the phone because she wasn't going to change her mind.

"I get criticised over these things because I'm passionate. But I have ridden a bike and know where I am going.

"We (Swindon) have had so many decisions where riders have gone out of control across Swindon riders and they (the refs) have excluded our rider.

"The same thing happens to one of the opposition's riders and they don't get excluded.

"There is no continuity. The standard of refereeing at the moment is not good enough and they need to look at it in the winter.

"You could say a decision like that on the line is not a big deal, but it was the difference between us winning and losing."

Ulamek had gone wide on the final bend because he thought Nicholls was going to try and pass him on the outside and was caught out by the Brits' inside dive.

But the Swindon rider still felt he had gone past the finish line in front.

Coventry's fans with the clearest view of the incident rose as one to indicate they thought Nicholls had got the verdict.

More importantly, their view was shared by Vardy, in the referee's box.

Swindon, almost unbelievably, had pulled back a 17-point deficit going into the meeting to draw level with Coventry after eight heats.

With Pirates losing 10 of their 12 races, they were purely bystanders as the Bees kept cool to stave off Swindon's charge and lift their second trophy of the season as they bid for a treble.