7:00am Tuesday 24th June 2008
By Phil Chard
DAVEY Watt has pledged to help Pirates put their nightmare performance at Coventry earlier this season firmly behind them in the Knockout Cup.
The two sides will meet in the semi-final over two legs in a repeat of their Craven Shield last four clash when Bees' dramatically late charge sent the Dorset club spinning out.
Poole Castle Cover led by 10 points on aggregate with only three heats left in the second leg at Brandon on May 2.
But, with Watt trailing in third twice on the back of two 5-1s and Pirates also conceding another race maximum, they were dumped out 92-90 after the aggregate scores had been level with 10 races to go.
Now Pirates visit Brandon in the KO Cup on Monday, August 11 and host Coventry two days later with a place in the final at stake.
Watt, who struggled to get five paid six at Coventry during that debacle, said: "It would mean a lot to me to be able to go back there and prove what I had done in our league match there wasn't a fluke."
Watt, who'd fired in 11 paid 12 as Poole narrowly lost 48-45 at Brandon on April 18, added: "We want to prove our 58-32 defeat the second time round was a one-off.
"I was very upset with that meeting and with myself personally.
"I just really want to make sure when we go there this time we put up a good performance and show what we are worth and we deserve to be in that final.
"I want to remind people I am fast around Coventry. I just need to put the memory of that meeting behind me.
"It was a bad day at the office so we have to make sure we keep together as a team this time.
"I had millions of problems that night.
"Pretty much everything that could go wrong went wrong and I was gutted that my poor performance helped us lose when we really should have got through to the final.
"Everything we tried to get the bike going faster didn't come off and I must have changed things around after almost every heat.
"I wasn't gating. It was a culmination of a combination of problems, but I think we have put that all to rest now."
Watt quickly bounced back from his Brandon nightmare and notched 18 paid 19 in two meetings as Pirates dumped Swindon out 93-90 on aggregate in the cup quarter-final last week.
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