ALUN Rossiter has lit the blue touch-paper ahead of Pirates’ eagerly-awaited showdown with Swindon and has told his former club: “You’re not invincible.”

Rossiter, who skippered and won three championships with Poole, tonight brings his Elite League title hopefuls to Wimborne Road for a clash of the titans (7.30pm).

Swindon-born Rossiter managed the Robins to four successive league wins in a 12-day spell, culminating in Monday’s 54-39 victory over Coventry.

The impressive run propelled the Wiltshire outfit to second place in the embryonic table, with fourth-placed Pirates also unbeaten after two league meetings.

Rossiter took great delight in plotting Poole’s downfall when he led Coventry to the Elite League crown in 2010, their play-off final triumph capped by a fine win at Wimborne Road.

The charismatic 46-year-old, who returned to his hometown club over the winter, told the Daily Echo: “We know it is going to be tough because Poole are very good on their own track but I am confident our riders are good enough to give them a challenge.

“In my opinion, I wouldn’t say they are as strong as they were last year and they certainly look a bit vulnerable at the bottom end.

“I don’t mean it disrespectfully, but I wouldn’t say they are the best team in the league this year. Matt Ford always builds a team which is there or thereabouts and I still think they will make the play-offs.

“They had a good start and it was a good win at Coventry. But I think everyone put them on a pedestal after that and I wouldn’t say they were invincible. They are beatable.

“My heat leaders are good enough to give their boys a run for their money.

“It is always hard to beat Chris Holder and Darcy Ward at Wimborne Road but, if we could pop out in front of one of them, you never know.

“I am comfortable with my team this year and they have all been firing together. Troy Batchelor has had a few problems with his engines and, hopefully, he will be over them. If he could do his job and pick up 10 or 11 points, I think it would go to the wire.”

Rossiter, whose wife Julie hails from Poole, will have his three children among the crowd.

Daughters Grace, 10, and Charlee, seven, will be joined by four-year-old son Ben and Rossiter’s in-laws Danny and Cherry Warren. Rossiter’s brother-in-law Martin Willis is a former Poole rider.