DANNY Ford believes Poole Pirates have sent out a "real statement" with their 47-43 win at reigning SGB Championship holders Leicester.

The Lions were previously unbeaten in just under three years on their home track, but never held a lead against Pirates at Beaumont Park.

Despite missing both Ondrej Smetana and Ben Cook, guests Alfie Bowtell (1+1) and James Wright (7) filled in, with Steve Worrall (14) and Danny King (10+1) inspiring Pirates to victory in a last-heat decider, their first win on the road in the league this season.

Leicester remain above Pirates in the Championship standings, but the Wimborne Road outfit will have the chance to improve on their sixth position in the coming weeks as they catch up on their meetings in hand on all of the top five.

"I felt that we’ve been really unlucky and our results haven’t necessarily reflected our performances on the road so far this year," promoter Ford told the Daily Echo.

"Going into that meeting, I don’t think many people would’ve thought we’d be able to go there and get a win.

"I don’t think they’ve lost a meeting there for about three years so to go there and get a win sends out a real statement."

Pirates' preparations were hampered when reserve Cook crashed out while guesting for Redcar the night before the trip to Leicester.

He now faces a spell on the sidelines with a leg injury, but late replacement Wright did a strong job to fill the void, to help set the platform for Poole's impressive win.

"Obviously we lost Ben the day before the meeting, while he was guesting at Redcar," explained Ford.

"That was a massive blow to us because he’s been absolutely sensational at reserve. So we drafted in James Wright last minute and he did a fantastic job, picking up seven points.

"It was a captain’s performance from Danny King, on 10 paid 11, and Steve Worrall is just the man in form for us at the minute - absolutely smashing in the points.

"So with another 14-point display is absolutely fantastic. I think that’s put us in good stead now and looking forward to a busy couple of weeks."

The win was also the first with Gary Havelock as team boss.

Havelock, alongside Neil Middleditch, are sharing management duties at Poole this term. Havelock is mainly looking after northern trips, with this clash against Leicester just the second time he has actually been called into action so far, the other coming in defeat at Glasgow Tigers in early June.

But with meetings at Scunthorpe, Edinburgh, Berwick and Newcastle all to come in the next fortnight, Havelock is set to have a big role to play to help continue Poole's momentum, as they look to extend their six-meeting unbeaten streak.

Ford said: "That was only his (Havelock's) second meeting and the first one was against Glasgow where we lost Rory (Schlein) in heat one. So that was always going to be one where we were going to be up against it because Glasgow, along with Leicester, are probably the title favourites.

"Havvy was absolutely fantastic last night and it’s good for him to get that first win under his belt.

"There’s a lot of meetings coming thick and fast now, so it was important to get that done and now hopefully the team, Havvy and Middlo can all carry the momentum we’ve built now. We’re on a bit of a winning streak, so it’s all looking good."