CHRIS Holder and Bjarne Pedersen stayed cool to seal Pirates’ first league win in 10 matches when they bagged a last-heat 4-2 over Krzysztof Kasprzak to clinch a nail-biting victory over Belle Vue yesterday.

The Aussie got away from the tapes in front of Wimborne Road track specialist KK and then rode superbly to peg him behind for four laps before taking the chequered flag.

Pedersen also did a cracking job, comfortably coming home in third to grab the point that ensured Poole Castle Cover grabbed their first win since March 30 when they downed Swindon 48-42 at home.

In between, the struggling Dorset side had drawn one league match, then lost a club record-equalling eight in a row as they tumbled to the bottom of the Elite League.

Pirates chief Matt Ford has confirmed changes will be made following their league clash at Swindon on Thursday.

And it showed, with jobs on the line, as Joe Screen and Daniel Davidsson dug deep to produce nine and eight paid 10, respectively, to give solid backing to Holder, who plundered 14, and Pedersen, who bagged 10 paid 11.

At one stage, after Belle Vue had snatched a 5-1 in heat eight through James Wright and Patrick Hougaard, it looked like curtains for Poole.

They trailed by six and were feeling aggrieved after referee Chris Durno inexplicably ordered all four back for a re-run of heat seven when Billy Forsberg had clearly fallen on his own on the first bend with Pirates on a 5-1.

Tomasz Piszcz, whose unpredictability is hard to fathom at times, had just blitzed cleanly between Ulrich Ostergaard and Forsberg to join Holder on a 5-1 when the official called all four back.

It was a mysterious decision you felt was going to be pivotal as Pirates were bidding to attain the much-needed win that could pull them off the bottom by leapfrogging Belle Vue.

From then on, most Poole fans must have had a sinking gut feeling their team were going to lose again, particularly as Aces took full advantage of their reprieve and got a 3-3 in the re-run with Piszcz slipping from second to last.

Davidsson dived under Charlie Gjedde on the back straight of the second circuit in race nine to team-up with Screen as Pirates got a 5-1 to drag themselves back into contention at 28-26.

But Aces, with Hougaard brilliant at reserve – and team manager Chris Morton’s use of him in the latter stages even better – retaliated with a 4-2 in race 10 as the Dane jumped out in front of Pedersen and beat him.

Pedersen worked hard to pass Forsberg on the third lap for second, then, after Holder had shown Kasprzak his back wheel in race 11, Poole reserve Paul Hurry, an unlikely candidate to be their saviour, battled brilliantly in heat 12 to turn the match.

Fourth out, he went wide, and wider still, to squeeze past Ostergaard, then Morten Risager, on the first lap to get into a 5-1 position with Screen.

Risager edged back in front when Hurry locked up on the third lap, but the Pirate blasted outside the Ace again on the fourth turn to follow Screen home, level the scores at 36-36 and earn a rare standing ovation from the home fans this term.

Ref Durno incurred the wrath of Poole’s fans again when he excluded Hurry while he was on a 5-1 with Davidsson on the third lap of the penultimate race when Forsberg clearly nudged him into the fence.

Durno awarded a 3-3 that forced a last-heat decider, but Holder and Pedersen came up trumps, inflicting a 4-2 over KK, to seal Pirates’ long-awaited victory.

It wasn’t enough for them to jump off the foot of the league, but Poole, who took two points to Aces’ one, will be happy with any win at the moment.