POOLE asset Kyle Newman defended his decision to ride against his parent club and insisted he had been the “innocent victim” in the controversy surrounding his guest booking.

Newman, axed by Poole in June following an injury-hit start to the season and loaned to Leicester, helped Swindon inflict defeat on Pirates in the first leg of Monday’s SGB Premiership play-off semi-final.

The 25-year-old was drafted in at the 11th hour as a replacement for Bradley Wilson-Dean and scored eight paid nine points in the Robins’ 46-44 victory.

However, Poole team manager Neil Middleditch questioned the validity of Wilson-Dean’s absence and suggested the circumstances of his unavailability did not “smell quite right”.

Wilson-Dean, who has been plagued by a wrist injury in recent weeks, had ridden for Peterborough just 24 hours earlier, picking up eight paid 10 points in their win over Workington.

Despite the Kiwi’s injury, Middleditch claimed Wilson-Dean had arrived at Wimborne Road and “spoke to my gate staff and thought he was actually riding, so make of it what you will”.

Middleditch also said he did not wish to “cast aspersions” but added that he had “heard from reliable people that he (Newman) knew he was going to be riding here a week ago”.

Asked by the Daily Echo for his take on the matter, Newman said: “A lot of it was to do with the loan agreement between Leicester and Poole and we won’t go into too many details. I was piggy in the middle. I was waiting to hear whether I was allowed to ride or not.

“A lot of people are moaning about me riding against Poole but I’m not affiliated to Poole at the moment.

“It’s nothing against Poole, it’s getting called up to take a guest booking. If the job is there, you have to take it.

“It’s a long winter so you have to prepare for that. You have to pay the bills and it would have been silly not to take the booking.”

Asked whether he felt his decision may have been a snub to some of his Poole-based sponsors, Newman replied: “As far as I’m concerned, all my sponsors are fully behind me and back me 100 per cent. Hopefully, they will see it the same as I do.”

Put to him that Middleditch had suggested he had known about the booking a week ago and that Wilson-Dean had turned up thinking he was going to ride, Newman said: “I had been on standby before it was even announced that it was at Poole because they weren’t sure how Bradley’s fitness was going to be. He had a ride yesterday and pulled out of his last ride because he wasn’t fit.

“Because of the rules as to whether I was going to be allowed to ride or not, I think he (Wilson-Dean) brought his bikes just in case, I’m not too sure, I don’t know the ins and outs.

“If he wasn’t fit yesterday to take his last ride, he wasn’t going to be fit to take four rides today on a much tighter and trickier track.

“I hope people don’t look upon me badly for it. I feel I’m the innocent victim. If it had been any other rider taking the guest booking, it wouldn’t have been a problem. It’s become a problem because I’m a Poole boy and because of what happened this year.”