TEAM manager Neil Middleditch heaped praise on his "outstanding" Poole Pirates septet for the way they battled back to take a lead into Saturday's Championship grand final second leg.

The outlook appeared bleak for Middlo's men, trailing Leicester Lions 26-16 after seven heats at Wimborne Road.

But the hosts stormed back, not dropping another heat advantage all evening, recording four 5-1 maximums along the way to triumph 49-41 on the night, with Richard Lawson (12) leading the charge.

"What a comeback," said Middleditch.

"I've got to say, 10 points down, staring down the barrel of a gun weren't we?

"I got the boys together after heat 11 and I said we've got four heats left, we need every single point, it's going to be absolutely vital.

"And they were absolutely outstanding. I couldn't ask for any more. Everybody, bar none, played a huge part and the supporters were deafening, that was brilliant."

He added: "Leicester will be driving home very disappointed that they didn't come away with the win, because it was certainly looking like it.

"But we dug so deep and I'm so proud of every single one of them. It was a tremendous team effort.

"I said before the meeting, these are the seven boys that got us to the final, and these are the seven boys I wanted to be with. They certainly did me proud."

The final is now well in the balance. Poole's two trips to Beaumont Park this season in league and cup saw the Lions win 48-42 and then 46-44.

Discussing the margin of victory ahead of Saturday's second leg (6pm), Middleditch said: "Eight points, is it enough? Hopefully it's enough.

"People kept asking me before the meeting, what do you need? I said 10 or more.

"We've got eight. It's not a massive lead, but if we ride with the spirit we rode with (on Wednesday), there's no reason we can't bring that title back to Poole."