MATT Ford watched Pirates’ 2013 campaign take another wrong turn before revealing he had issued a warning to the club’s misfiring riders.

The Wimborne Road chief made no excuses for Pirates’ poor start to the season after they had lost 53-42 at Eastbourne on Saturday.

Depleted Poole were without Kyle Howarth, Rohan Tungate and Maciej Janowski – who was stranded in Poland due to travel problems – as well as injury victim Robert Miskowiak.

Replacements Kyle Newman, Tom Jorgensen, emergency late call-up Richie Worrall and Dennis Andersson were unable to revive the struggling Dorset outfit’s Elite League fortunes.

The Eastbourne loss left Pirates, who visit Belle Vue tonight (7.30pm), with four defeats in their opening five league matches this term.

And promoter Ford confirmed that worrying record had led to him speaking to some team members about their lack of form. He told the Daily Echo: “To me, the biggest issue was losing Robert Miskowiak at the start of the season. I felt we were vulnerable with rider replace- ment but Dennis Andersson has found it tough on his return.

“Certain riders have been in-formed that their current scoring prowess is not up to the standard we require and they have been given the friendliest of warnings that things need to improve.

“We have to be sensible. It is a long season and you can’t afford to go too many meetings before you click in. It will be a helluva task to catch Swindon and King’s Lynn, but we have still got every-thing to ride for because fourth position is as good as first when it comes to reaching the play-offs.”

Meanwhile, Ford defended Janowski after he had failed to get to Eastbourne after riding against Chris Holder and Darcy Ward in Poland on Friday.

Ford confirmed Holder and Ward had managed to rearrange their travel plans due to problems in Gdansk before arriving at Eastbourne at 6.40pm.

“Maciej was 20 minutes behind them and missed that flight,” explained Ford. “He made every effort by booking two flights. He receives a fine for missing the meeting and the club does as well, so it was an expensive day for the club. It was purely down to bad luck.”

Riders’ scores – Eastbourne 53: L Dryml (3-3-2-3-3) 14, Woodward (3-3-2*-2*-2) 12+2, Pedersen (3-2*-2-1-0) 8+1, Gizatullin (0-3-1-2) 6, Lahti (0-3-3-0) 6, Gustafsson (1-1-3-0) 5, Shields (1-1-0) 2.

Pirates 42: Holder (2-4^-3-3-3) 15, Ward (2-0-6^-2-1) 11, Jorgensen (1*-f-2-1) 4+1, Worrall (2-1-1-0) 4, Stachyra (1*-2-0-1) 4+1, Newman (2-0-0-1) 3, Andersson (0-0-1-fx) 1.