ROBINS boss Alun Rossiter watched his team put down a “good marker” last night and then insisted they were ready to fight for Elite League honours.

The Swindon chief felt his men were well placed to try to spring a surprise against Pirates when rain forced an abandonment with the scores level at 24-24 after eight heats at Wimborne Road.

Reigning champions Poole and their title rivals had battled hard in an absorbing contest until the downpour arrived.

Rossiter’s unbeaten Robins have been widely tipped to mount a challenge for silverware this season.

And the former Poole captain said they had underlined their quality against the reigning kings.

Rossiter told the Daily Echo: “For us to come down here and be level at 24-24, I was really pleased.

“I thought we put down a good marker to let people know that we are in here for a good fight.”

In-form reserve Peter Kildemand had registered two Robins wins before the rain, with Pirates stars Chris Holder and Darcy Ward collecting two apiece for the hosts.

Rossiter added: “Everybody could see the Pirates were up for it and we were up for it.

“I was really pleased with our performance and I thought we were a little bit unfortunate to be level.

“We had a couple of things go against us. But, all in all, I was really pleased with the stamp we put down.

“We were in a good position and I felt we were in positions where we could have kicked on a little bit.

“We were waiting for the big onslaught from the big two (Holder and Ward). We knew the threat of those two and what would happen once they got together so we had to try to really get the points on the table early on.”

Pre-meeting showers had made the track wet in areas, with the riders having to overcome tricky race conditions.

Poole team manager Neil Middleditch thought the weather had been a factor and claimed the wet conditions had taken away his team’s home-track advantage.

He said: “We knew it was going to be a good, tough meeting and it was certainly working up to be that.

“What happened with the weather made it into a level playing field.

“Normally you like to think you have got a bit of a home advantage, whereas we lost that advantage with the weather, so it probably played into Swindon’s hands a little bit more than ours.”