THE problem with success is it doesn't half breed expectation. In that sense, Pirates chief Matt Ford has made a rod for his own back.

Forget the team's current plight – a quick look at recent history throws up some remarkable numbers. Since the play-offs were introduced ahead of the 2002 Elite League season, Poole have reached the showpiece meetings on no fewer than 12 occasions, winning seven titles. That's before we start talking about cups, shields and various other trinkets.

Masters of the shale such as Bjarne Pedersen, Darcy Ward, Chris Holder and Maciej Janowski were the darlings of the Wimborne Road faithful and wrote themselves into skull and crossbones folklore.

Such was the Dorset club's success that team manager Neil Middleditch regularly ushered in new riders with the opening gambit: "Welcome to the most hated club in Britain."

All of a sudden, those days seem a long time ago. The current season has been a struggle and now Poole are in serious danger of an unprecedented five straight home league defeats.

That milestone is clearly unwanted but the bigger picture is that the play-offs are slipping away. Pirates may still occupy the fourth qualifying position but below them, King's Lynn and a Rye House side boosted by the improbable signing at reserve of Krzysztof Kasprzak, are loitering menacingly.

While Ford pulls the strings, recruits the riders and makes the club tick on a daily basis, he cannot hop on a bike and roar round Wimborne Road four times in 60 seconds flat.

Only the riders can do that.

The transfer deadline has passed and barring the expected return of Aussie star Brady Kurtz, Pirates will head into the business end of the season with the same septet they have now.

Whatever the riders' motivation, be it earning money, enhancing their hopes of a team place for next year, or simply showing off, it matters not. Talk is cheap. The time has come to step up.

Undoubtedly, there have been errors on and off the track. But there has been substantial bad luck as well, which to overlook would be naive.

While the signing of Kasprzak at number one proved a mistake, the terrible knee injury suffered by trump card Nicolai Klindt was equally costly. Kyle Newman might have had a far different season had he not broken his shoulder blade in the Darcy Ward Invitational.

Blossoming talent Kurtz has been on the sidelines since the beginning of last month and prior to his eventual exit, Kasprzak's campaign was hindered by a broken collarbone.

These are details which will not appear in the history books, however.

To lose five home league meetings on the spin would be painful but not nearly as shattering as missing out on the top four.

Ford really does hate to lose. When he spoke at length to this newspaper about his club's play-off semi-final defeat to Wolverhampton last year, the tone of his voice suggested not only that the season had been a complete failure, but that he had taken that failure personally.

Were Poole to miss out on the play-offs altogether this term, there is no doubt he would not fully get over it for months. That is just his nature.

The bottom line is this. Whatever they have done so far this year, Pirates' riders must show the same insatiable desire to win as their club's owner – it has served him well for the past two decades and will do so again.