POPULAR Brit Chris Harris hopes to repay Pirates with a league title – after pinching one off the Dorset club eight years ago.

Harris won the most recent of his three Elite League crowns in 2010, when he helped Coventry defeat a power-packed Poole side containing Chris Holder, Darcy Ward, Bjarne Pedersen and Jason Doyle in the grand final.

The Bees had lost their first seven meetings of the season but steered up the table by team manager Alun Rossiter and helped by 20 paid 25 from Harris across the two-legged play-off final, they claimed a famous success.

Having earlier this month replaced Linus Sundstrom in the Pirates line-up, former Grand Prix star Harris wants to lift Pirates away from the lower reaches of the SGB Premiership and bring silverware to the south coast.

The three-time British individual champion, who is set to make his home debut against Leicester tomorrow (7.30pm), told the Daily Echo: “I always want to win titles, no matter what league I’m racing in.

“The last one I won was in 2010 against Poole so it would be nice to pay them back with a title after taking one off them.

“Me and Matt (Ford) have always spoken and he has always said I would be at Poole one day.

“Due to averages and the fact he has a lot of his own assets, the numbers have not allowed it.

“But with Linus wanting to leave and Rye House closing, it fell into place and was meant to be.

“I’ve always had a warm welcome at Poole as a visiting rider and I’m looking forward to being a home rider this time.

“I suppose the fans like my never-say-die attitude and the fact I never give up.

“I know Matt said crowds have dropped so, hopefully, we can get some wins and get the fans back through the gate because without them, there is no speedway."

Although second-bottom of the table, Poole are only two points off the top four with 11 meetings remaining.

Harris said: “We need to make sure we win every home match and we could do with winning one or two away, because other teams are doing that.

“We all need to make the step up and put that extra five or 10 per cent into each race and that will get us the points we need to win home and away.”

Harris, 35, impressed with nine points in Poole’s 46-44 defeat at King’s Lynn last night.

He added: “It would have been nice to get a win and scored a few more points but that’s just me being greedy.

“Aside from heat 13, it was first and seconds all night so I was consistent, which was pleasing.

“A point was great but having been six up and losing by two was disappointing.

“We all had a bad race somewhere along the line, which you have to cut out if you want to win titles.”