DANIEL Davidsson has called for Pirates' fans to delay dreaming of title success just yet after they secured a coveted home draw in the play-offs with this easy win last night.

The Swede was on top form as he scorched to seven paid eight from three completed rides as Poole Castle Cover made it 13 league wins on the trot.

After storming to a comprehensive victory over title rivals Swindon, the Dorset club can't be overhauled for first or second place, which guarantees a home one-off semi-final.

But Davidsson, excluded for touching the tapes in his other outing, said: "It's always good to be at home, but we need to be careful because we have lost twice here already this season.

"Even though we have a home draw it doesn't mean we automatically get to the final.

"It's all down to what happens on the night in the semi.

"We have to keep fighting because when we get to the play-offs everyone starts from zero.

"Ipswich have beaten us here and if Swindon have a good night they can beat us here as well.

"We haven't won anything yet.

"We've had a terrific season since I got here in May. We've been winning almost all the time, but it can all go wrong in one meeting.

"We can have a bad night, lose ourselves and we are out. So we have to be careful."

Last night was one when referee Chris Gay took centre stage by publicly warning three riders for moving at the start, finally losing his patience and excluding Troy Batchelor for alleged rolling in heat 14.

Earlier, in a thrice started race four, Poole's Davey Watt appeared to have been harshly put back 15 metres for breaking the tapes after Batchelor had clearly moved first.

The announcement that Batchelor had then been warned by the referee not to move at the start again was met by ironic cheers from the Pirates supporters among a bumper 4,000 crowd, who felt Watt should have been given the benefit of the doubt.

Watt threw his hands up in despair following the decision, and it was ironic, once more, when Batchelor later won the race, giving Swindon a rare 4-2 heat advantage on a poor night for them.

Davidsson, however, was quick to acknowledge Gay was right to exclude him from race eight for touching the tapes.

The Swede, who'd been warned for rolling in the second start of heat four, said: "It was my own fault.

"If you touch the tapes you're out. It's pretty simple. If I hadn't touched them, I would probably still have been excluded anyway because I'd received a warning in heat four.

"But never mind. We won anyway, and it's always good to win. I did my job tonight and so did everyone else in the team, so we're happy."

Swindon's Mads Korneliussen was the other rider warned for rolling, in heat seven, but a brilliant seven-man effort by Poole ensured their fans left the stadium not just talking about Gay's timing of pressing the start button.

Bjarne Pedersen and Chris Holder led the way with superb displays, while Magnus Zetterstrom, Davidsson, Adam Skornicki and Freddie Eriksson all pulled something special out of the bag at times.

Only luckless Watt, whose battling riding deserved more points, struggled to hit his best form.

It didn't matter though as Poole stretched their club record top-flight winning record to 13 successive wins, just three short of their all-time winning run of 16 in the National League, or second division, in 1990.

  • Pirates confirmed last night they will definitely host Coventry in the Knockout Cup semi-final, first leg, replay next Wednesday, but no date has been set for the return at Brandon.