JOE Screen believes Pirates’ highly-regarded team spirit of the past few years is set to return following Hans Andersen’s arrival at the club.

The Great Britain international believes it has disappeared this season as Poole Castle Cover have lost 10 of their 14 Elite League matches and slumped to second bottom.

Screen said: “Hans’s signing will take the pressure off us all, but it’ll also help us as a team to bond and start again.

“The pressure is always there. You always have it, but it’s just going to be a better environment within the team because it has been pretty awful the last few weeks.

“Personally, I’ve enjoyed myself because my form has been okay, but on the team side, we were all getting down losing everywhere, especially at home.

“The atmosphere has been hard for everyone but when we won last week against Lakeside it was a different atmosphere.

“I’m hoping it’ll change for the better now Hans is here, and then we can get back to what everyone knows Poole has been like over the last four or five years.”

Screen added: “I rode with Hans in Sweden several years ago and he’s a good guy, so it’ll be great to ride with him again. It’ll strengthen the team.

“I move away from my heat leader spot to number four or two, which will be a little bit easier for me.

“Chris (Holder) and Bjarne (Pedersen) won’t mind Hans coming in either because we all know what Hans will do. He’ll score points for us. That’s a fact.”

Asked if new-look Pirates can still mount a serious title defence, Screen said: “At the end of the day, we just have to get in the play-offs. Then we can start talking about titles.

“That’s the first hurdle. If we get there, then we can start thinking about that.

“I’d say with the team we have now, yes we can win the league. But we have to start winning away, as well as all our home matches.

“Once we start doing that, we’ll be up there again.”

Talking about his disappointing five-point British Final performance at Poole, Screen added: “I just had a nightmare.

“On parade we had a problem with my bike, the bike I’ve used at Poole. Then we changed bikes and I had a major problem with that one.

“It took us two rides to find the problem with the second bike, although we got it working good by my fifth ride.

“It wouldn’t rev out. There was something wrong with the carburettor.

“Off the start, it worked good. But when I got to the corner my bike, there were no revs, I slowed down and that’s why I kept getting passed.

“In my last two races it worked better, I was competitive and got two second places.

“I’m just glad it happened in the British Final and not in a Poole fixture.”

n New Buccaneers number eight Jon Resch makes his debut at Rye House in the National League tonight (7pm).

Rye House: 1 D Halsey, 2 M Bovis, 3 J Courtney, 4 R Smith, 5 L Strudwick, 6 D Blake, 7 B Morley.

Buccaneers: 1 J Herne, 2 Rider replacement for L Priest, 3 A Aldridge, 4 M Baseby, 5 K Newman, 6 A Baseby, 7 J Resch.