SWINDON collected a hard-fought league point from their Premiership opener at Wolverhampton on Monday.

The CFS Filtration Robins lost 46-44 in the West Midlands but showed plenty of positive glimpses to take them into the rest of the campaign.

Their season got off to a dream start with a 5-1 in the first before the hosts responded to get themselves in front.

No more than six points ever separated the two sides and the Robins drew level courtesy of a 5-1 from Troy Batchelor and Jason Doyle in Heat 13.

But Pole Dawid Lampart was caught out by the opposition whilst leading the penultimate race and while Batchelor took the chequered flag in Heat 15, ex-Wolf Tobiasz Musielak was unable to find a way past Scott Nicholls for the second place which would have seen the Robins leave with a draw.

Team boss Alun Rossiter was pleased with what he saw overall though.

“It was a very good performance and there were some positive signs,” he said.

“Dawid was making some good starts and whilst he has been practicing on some smaller tracks, it’s not quite the same as actually racing.

“But he didn’t disgrace himself and it gives me a lot of hope that there’s a lot more to come from him.

“It was a really good battling performance from James (Shanes) as well and we just need to get Zach (Wajtknecht) going after a few little issues.

“To lose by two is frustrating but we’ll take the positives.

“It was a solid enough performance though and if you’d have said we’d leave here with a point beforehand, we’d definitely have taken that.”

The Robins now gear up for the first meeting around the new Abbey Stadium circuit on Thursday (April 18, 7.30) when reigning Champions Poole are the visitors.

WOLVERHAMPTON 46: Scott Nicholls 11+2, Luke Becker 11+1, Rory Schlein 11, Sam Masters 5+1, Kyle Howarth 5+1, Ashley Morris 3+1, Nick Morris R/R.

SWINDON 44: Troy Batchelor 14, Tobiasz Musielak 12, Jason Doyle 9+2, Adam Ellis 6+1, James Shanes 2+1, Zach Wajtknecht 1, Dawid Lampart 0.