NEIL Middleditch has stoked the fires ahead of Pirates' clash with Coventry by branding as "bad form" the Bees' attempts to get the teams' previous fixture restaged.

Pirates grabbed a 36-22 win in treacherous conditions at Brandon on June 1 in a Sky-televised meeting that was curtailed after 10 heats.

The result provoked a furious reaction from the Bees, the club later revealing plans to submit concerns to the Speedway Control Bureau in a bid to get the fixture re-run.

However, that move irked Poole boss Middleditch, who admitted tonight's top-of-the-table clash at Wimborne Road (7.30pm) would be a "pretty edgy" affair.

Middleditch told the Daily Echo: "I don't know what that was all about. Whether they were trying to get some publicity, I don't know, but I thought it was pretty bad form asking for the meeting to be restaged.

"It's absolutely ludicrous. The floodgates would have to open. Would we restage the first leg of the final last year because of rain or the final in 2010? Where does it stop?

"I don't know what they are thinking of. They lost a match and OK, it wasn't how they wanted to lose it or on their terms, but they lost it.

"It wasn't me that refused to send riders out, it was them. I did everything by the rules. The referee told me the meeting was on and to send my boys out for heat 10, so I did, and obviously they didn't send theirs out.

"The weather intervened, we got to heat 10 as stated in the rules so it's a result – get over it.

"I received a letter from the Speedway Control Bureau asking for my version of events and from my point of view there was nothing wrong.

"There's a bit of history there following that encounter but there's no animosity between us and Coventry, it's just going to be a pretty edgy meeting on Wednesday."

Middleditch has a close relationship with Bees team manager and former Poole rider Gary Havelock and admits the controversy at Brandon could have been dealt with in a different manner.

The Pirates boss added: "Havvy is as passionate about his club as I am about mine and if anything, it should have been between me and Havvy rather than Mick Horton (Coventry promoter) coming down to get his tuppence-worth in there.

"At the end of the day it was up to the track curator and the referee. If all the riders had deemed the track unsafe then we wouldn't have ridden."

Both Elite League leaders Poole and second-placed Coventry are at full strength for tonight's fixture.

Pirates: (from) Chris Holder, Maciej Janowski, Dakota North, Dave Watt, Kacper Gomolski, Paul Starke, Kyle Newman.

Bees: (from) Chris Harris, Hans Andersen, Joonas Kylmakorpi, Danny King, Stuart Robson, Jason Garrity, James Sarjeant.