SWINDON suffered a damaging 39-53 home defeat at the hands of Belle Vue at the Abbey Stadium on Thursday.

It was the M&S Van Rental Robins’ first outing on their own circuit for over three weeks, and the night quickly turned into a catalogue of disaster.

Alun Rossiter’s men never really recovered from conceding 5-1s in each of the first two races, and they found themselves 9-21 down after just five heats.

There was brief hope for the Robins when their top two riders on the night, Dakota North and Grzegorz Zengota, combined for a 5-1 in Heat 6 with Matej Zagar eclipsed after appearing to delay the start.

But the Aces were straight back in control when both Nick Morris and Troy Batchelor suffered mechanical trouble in Heat 7, with the remainder of Batchelor’s night destroyed by ignition issues.

Rossiter attempted to get back into the meeting by deploying Kyle Howarth for a tactical ride in Heat 9, but he was beaten by the Aces’ guest Sam Masters and was limited to just four points.

And with the visitors holding sway at reserve, carding two 5-1s in those races with Steve Worrall again impressive on his old home track, there was no comeback for the Robins, their evening summed up when Batchelor had more trouble coming off turn four when leading Heat 13.

Rossiter said: “You could see the frustration with Nick and Troy, they were out there testing after the meeting, and at the end of the day it’s a bad day at the office.

“Belle Vue came at us from the off, and we didn’t get back at them. There was nothing wrong with the track, so there are no excuses there, but we did have a lot of bad luck with engine failures in winning positions.

“We’ve got to get Kyle (Howarth) going because he’s got no speed although he’s riding hard enough, and also sort out the situation with Adrian (Miedzinski). We’ve got to make some big calls shortly and we’ll have to work on that.”

SWINDON 39: Dakota North 11+1, Grzegorz Zengota 11+1, Kyle Howarth 6, Nick Morris 4, Troy Batchelor 4, James Wright 2+1, Lewis Rose 1.
BELLE VUE 53: Max Fricke 10+1, Steve Worrall 9+2, Matej Zagar 8+1, Sam Masters 8+1, Craig Cook 7+2, Scott Nicholls 6+1, Stefan Nielsen 5+2.