POOLE Pirates will be hoping to return to winning ways when they host Workington Comets in the first leg of the BSN Series semi-final tonight.

Pirates come into the fixture on the back of two consecutive losses, including their first home defeat since 2022 at the hands of Oxford last week.

They face a side they have already completed the league double against in Comets, with an aggregate 114-66 score.

Poole promoter Danny Ford told the Daily Echo that Pirates have to bounce back from the losses, and that there is no better time to do it than in the first leg of a semi-final.

“Losing at home for the first time in over two years was a bitter pill to swallow, we weren’t expecting it,” Ford said.

“But it can be a bit of a wake-up call for us, I suppose, we’re coming into the business end of the season now. So, hopefully it’s come at the right time, I suppose we could be afforded one slip up.

“But now’s the time to get our act together.”

Previewing the challenge Pirates face in Workington, the promoter said they will represent a tough opponent.

“A lot of people will be looking back to earlier in the season when we quite handily overturned Workington, but they’re a much different prospect now,” he said.

“They’ve been unfortunate with a few injuries, but the riders they’ve got coming into replace those are Wimborne Road specialists, both scoring double figure points on their recent visits to Wimborne Road, Drew Kemp and Jason Edwards.

“It’s going to be a really tough fight. Coming off the back of a loss, we perhaps wanted a slightly easier one to get our confidence back but that’s not the way things have panned out, we’ve got to go straight back in at the deep end now.

“There are a few guys who have been slightly out of form, they know the pressures on them now. Our top four have been solid all year, so we just need those guys to step up.

“We’ve been top of the league near enough all season, we don’t want things to slip away like they did for us last year.”

(Image: Richard Crease)

The visitors have been boosted by the return of number one and captain Craig Cook, having missed the past few fixtures, alongside Troy Batchelor, who posted a 13-point return in the side’s league visit in May.

Pirates fans will welcome GP wild card Tom Brennan, along with unused reserve Sam Hagon, Zach Cook and Tobias Thomsen.

Championship pairs semi-finalists Richard Lawson and Ben Cook take their place in the Pirates seven that features Redcar’s Ben Trigger as chosen replacement for Vinny Foord.

The second leg of the semi-final will take place a week on Saturday in Cumbria.

Poole (Team manager: Neil Middleditch): 1 Richard Lawson 2 Sam Hagon 3 Ben Cook (Capt) 4 Zach Cook 5 Tom Brennan 6 Tobias Thomsen 7 Ben Trigger (Guest)

Workington (Team manager: Andrew Bain): 1 Craig Cook (Capt) 2 Jason Edwards (Guest) 3 Antti Vuolas 4 Drew Kemp (Guest) 5 Troy Batchelor 6 Sam McGurk 7 Paul Starke