STEADFAST Matt Ford stood by his decision to part ways with Chris Holder – despite admitting Pirates had lost their “fear factor” since the Aussie’s winter exit.

Wimborne Road chief Ford elected not to bring back the club asset and former world champion for a 10th straight season, instead choosing Krzysztof Kasprzak to spearhead Poole’s SGB Premiership challenge.

But after Polish star Kasprzak struggled to make an impact and then sustained a broken collarbone at the beginning of May, Ford swooped for Grzegorz Zengota to cover on an initial short-term basis.

Holder, meanwhile, has endured a tough start to the year at new club King’s Lynn and despite an improvement last month, has only once hit double figures for the Stars.

While admitting mid-table Pirates no longer stirred up fear in their rivals, Ford insisted it had been the right call not to bring back Holder.

Speaking ahead of tonight’s home clash with table-toppers Wolverhampton (7.30pm), Ford told the Daily Echo: “I don’t think there’s a fear factor about Poole any more if you go back to the days of Darcy Ward, Maciej Janowski and Chris.

“Chris isn’t having the best of years so I don’t think that would have made a shred of difference if he had been here.

“His average has dropped to 6.5, almost the same as Kasprzak, so it wouldn’t have made a big deal of difference to us and of course we wouldn’t have been able to sign Nicolai Klindt, who has been a match-winner on more than one occasion.

“We really need a number one. That’s where the team has been misfiring. We need our number one to be scoring points because all of the other guys have done their jobs.”

Alongside the injury to Kasprzak, Pirates were without Kyle Newman for the opening month of the campaign due to a fractured shoulder blade and muscle damage. Elsewhere, Klindt is today due to learn the extent of the damage to his knee following a spill at Latvian track Daugavpils on Sunday.

Ford admits bad luck has followed Pirates closely this term but says his team are firmly in the race for the play-offs.

The promoter added: “We picked a team deemed by some to be the best in the league before a wheel was turned and, sadly, we haven’t been able to put that team on the track once.

“First, Kyle was out, then Krzysztof and now Nicolai and I am wondering if I’ve knocked over a black cat. That’s three of our seven riders and that’s not accounting for unavailability as we had at Leicester.

“There are two near-certainties to make the play-offs in Wolverhampton and Belle Vue and I think we are one of four teams who are pushing for the other places. Of ourselves, Rye House, Swindon and King’s Lynn, two will get in.”