EDINBURGH team manager Alex Harkess insists Poole Pirates are "still a very solid team" despite their recent inconsistent run of results.

Since battling past the Monarchs at Wimborne Road on June 1, Pirates endured a three-match winless streak, which included a first home loss in more than 1,000 days.

They snapped that run by seeing off Berwick Bandits 49-41 last time out, albeit with an unconvincing performance on the night.

Having seen some points slip away, Pirates have fallen off the pace set by leaders Leicester Lions, now sitting third in the table with five meetings left of the regular season.

And Harkess, who is looking to ensure his Edinburgh side finish in a top-six play-off spot themselves, is targeting a fast start at Armadale when the two sides meet tomorrow (7.30pm).

"Poole are still a very solid team in spite of a couple of poor recent results," he told the club's website.

"They are the kind of team you don't want to allow to get their tails up. We need to do what we did against Scunthorpe (last week) and get points on the board early, and get race winners so that they don't believe they are going to walk all over us.

"Last season when they came (here) and won, they were winning races virtually all the way through so we need to be getting these race wins as we should be doing at home, and taking it from there."