NEIL Middleditch revelled in Poole's "sting in the tail" and insisted the Dorset club could yet prove "very dangerous" this season.

Pirates claimed their first win since the opening night of the SGB Premiership campaign when they sunk Rye House 47-43 at Wimborne Road on Wednesday.

Key to that success was the prowess of home reserves Stefan Nielsen and Mateusz Szczepaniak, who racked up a combined 17 paid 22 between them.

In contrast, Rockets reserves Kevin Doolan – a guest – and Max Clegg managed a paltry two paid three.

Team boss Middleditch said: "The sting in the tail we have with Stefan and Mateusz is very important because we often rely so heavily on heat leaders.

"Reserves win meetings. If you look at the Rye House reserves against ours, that was the difference.

"The likes of Linus (Sundstrom) and Brady (Kurtz) have not hit their best form yet but it will come and when it does, we will be a very dangerous team. It's a long season and we still want to win this league.

"It's been frustrating for the fans, the riders and me, so to get a win in the bag was nice."

Nielsen has enjoyed a dramatic turnaround in fortunes after picking up a point on his Poole debut at Swindon earlier this month.

Having scored eight paid 10 at Rye House, the Great Britain international followed up with 11 paid 13, the highest score by a Pirates reserve this season.

Asked if he could have dreamed of such a total, Nielsen said: "If you had asked me after Swindon, I would have said no.

"I had a turning point at Rye House. I put too much pressure on myself for the Swindon meeting and a few nerves took over, so I wanted to come up here and show what I could do.

"I had to take a different approach and relax. It was just another meeting for me and I know I can beat any of these riders.

"At the moment I'm doing well and I'm hoping I can keep it up.

"I've always loved coming here and to finally get a chance to put this race jacket on means a lot to me. Hopefully, I will do the club proud.

"I'm not sure how long it will last for. When I first got the call it was only on a monthly basis. I've got to put in the performances and, hopefully, make them change their mind and keep me on."

Number one Kurtz picked up seven points and admitted there was room for improvement.

He said: "I've had some good meetings and some bad meetings and I'm not really sure what's wrong and what's not wrong. I'm trying my best to fix it.

"I've been changing things the whole year to try to get something working, mostly from the starts. But it's just not working at the moment."