PROMOTER Matt Ford has described Pirates’ current form on the road as “quite frightening” but says he will continue to hold off on making team changes.

Second-placed Poole suffered a fifth successive away defeat when they went down 53-39 to Elite League play-off hopefuls Belle Vue last night.

Dakota North, Maciej Janowski and Kyle Newman were the only riders to post respectable scores as Pirates were sent packing for the fourth time in two years at Kirkmanshulme Lane.

Poole’s nasty bout of travel sickness during the past two months is in stark contrast to the start of the season when they won four of their first five.

Defeat in Manchester saw them fail to make ground on leaders Coventry, although they have a golden opportunity to close the gap when they host bottom-placed Leicester tomorrow (7.30pm).

Ford, who has seen Pirates ride at their imperious best at Wimborne Road this season, told the Daily Echo: “At the start of the season, if anyone had offered me the number of away wins we have now, I probably would have happily accepted.

“The upsetting part is that they all came at the beginning and our form latterly away from home has been quite frightening in all honesty.

“I won’t read too much into the Belle Vue result because I know the track is a huge problem to our riders and we can’t get to grips with it.

“Belle Vue are having a new stadium built in time for 2016 so I am hoping we have ridden our last meeting at Kirkmanhulme Lane because it hasn’t been a happy hunting ground for us. I imagine the majority of riders in the sport will be more than happy with the new setting from 2016 onwards.”

Asked whether last night’s reverse had influenced his decision to change the one-to-seven, Ford replied: “I am certainly not saying that nothing is happening.

“We are getting to the business end of the season and, over the next fortnight, the play-off picture should become a lot clearer and we should know the four clubs which will be in them.

“Once I think I know then I would have to consider whether to use what little room to manoeuvre we have to our advantage or not.

“You would have to say that if we have to go back to Belle Vue then perhaps the team is not strong enough.

“I am aware of certain misgivings within the team and, if I felt we needed to change something nearer the time, then we definitely would.”

Reserve Paul Starke, who failed to trouble the scorers at Belle Vue, will use a clutch prepared by Pirates skipper Maciej Janowski against Leicester having encountered problems with his own last night.

Poole: Kacper Gomolski, Chris Holder, Maciej Janowski, Dakota North, Dave Watt, Kyle Newman, Paul Starke.

Leicester: Kevin Doolan (guest), Jason Doyle, Piotr Swiderski, Grzegorz Walasek, Szymon Wozniak, Guest for Josh Auty (still to be confirmed), Oliver Greenwood (guest).