Belle Vue kick off a run of crunch home matches

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Swindon Travel Hub

Swindon kick off a crunch run of home matches when they welcome Belle Vue to the Abbey on Thursday (7.30pm).

The CFS Filtration Robins also have to face in-form Poole and then the Aces again in their remaining Blunsdon schedule – and wins in all three could well be enough to secure their place in the play-offs.

In addition, Alun Rossiter’s side have trips to Wolverhampton and Poole next week as they look to firm-up their top four spot, but the home clashes with Belle Vue are critical as the Aces are one of the teams who could catch them.

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Recent results have gone in the Robins’ favour with the Manchester side slipping to a home defeat by King’s Lynn last week, and then surprisingly crashing 58-32 at bottom club Leicester on Monday.

That reverse left them nine points behind the Robins with two matches in hand, pending their trip to Somerset on Wednesday.

The Aces have recently made changes in a bid to improve their away form, with Mark Riss and Dimitri Berge joining the club in place of Jye Etheridge and Damian Drozdz.

Berge showed impressive form at the Abbey when guesting for the Robins in a recent home win over Leicester, and although Riss is absent on Championship commitments the visitors have brought in Dutchman Theo Pijper – a Swindon rider way back in 2008 – to guest.

The Aces also have Brady Kurtz guesting for Craig Cook at No.1 as Cook was already committed to racing for his Championship club Glasgow at Ipswich prior to the re-arrangement of the fixture at Swindon, which has twice been postponed earlier in the season.

Robins are at full strength and unchanged, but Rossiter is taking nothing for granted especially as the Aces have won league matches at the Abbey in each of the last three seasons.

He said: “Belle Vue will always be tough opponents around our circuit, and they’ve shown it plenty of times in recent years.

“But it’s absolutely vital that we keep winning at home, especially as they are one of the teams who are chasing us. We need to win and ideally prevent them from getting anything out of the meeting.

“This is the critical time of the year and we need our top five to all be clicking together over the next few weeks, and if young Zach (Wajtknecht) can keep banging in the points as he’s been doing then I’m confident we can make the play-offs and have a good chance in them.”

SWINDON: Troy Batchelor, David Bellego, Adam Ellis, Tobiasz Musielak, Nick Morris, Zach Wajtknecht, Jack Smith.

BELLE VUE: Brady Kurtz, Steve Worrall, Dan Bewley, Rohan Tungate, Max Fricke, Dimitri Berge, Theo Pijper.

Swindon Travel Hub

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