CHRIS Holder is calling for Pirates’ fans to keep lifting his struggling team after their nail-biting 46-44 home triumph over Belle Vue yesterday.

The young Aussie rattled off an impressive 14-point haul to help seal bottom-of-the table Poole Castle Covers’ first Elite League win in 10 matches.

Then Holder, who kept cool to bag a last-heat match-winning 4-2 with Bjarne Pedersen over Krzysztof Kasprzak, said: “I want all Pirates fans to keep getting behind us so we all can all work together to get us out of the position we’re in.

“The simple message is ‘just keep the faith’ so we can start trying to climb up the league.

“It’s obvious to everyone we’re not at full strength, but we’re trying to do the best we can.

“We’ve beaten Belle Vue which is great because anything we can get at the moment is a bonus until we can sort ourselves out.

“So we really need the supporters to keep behind us and give us their backing.

“The riders are keeping the faith because we don’t turn up here and run last places on purpose.

“It will take a little bit of time, but by the end of the year we will be there.”

Pirates chief Matt Ford, whose side staved off creating an out-and-out new club record of nine successive league defeats by beating Aces, is set to make team changes after their visit to Swindon on Thursday.

The positions of Holder, Pedersen and Joe Screen appear safe, while Daniel Davidsson’s eight-paid 10 against Aces will have done his claim to retain his place no harm.

Ales Dryml, who got two points yesterday, will probably only fulfil his other two confirmed Poole bookings against Swindon and at home to Lakeside on May 13, while Pirates’ reserves are also likely to be on the way out.

Until Ford confirms his new appointments and who is going, Poole’s patched-up side must just get on with it.

With that in mind, Holder said: “It was a very important win for us over Belle Vue because they are not struggling but are in a similar position to us.

“So we really needed to win and it’s nice we did. We scrapped through and it was good for our confidence.

“Hopefully it keeps the fans happy because we couldn’t keep losing.”

Holder outgated Wimborne Road track specialist Kasprzak in heat 15, then pegged him back superbly while Pedersen was a comfortable third ahead of Patrick Hougaard as the home big guns confirmed Poole’s win.

The Aussie said: “We were hoping to seal it in race 14, but it just didn’t go our way (when Paul Hurry was excluded for falling while on a Pirates’ 5-1 with Daniel Davidsson on the third lap).

“We had a game plan. Whether it was me or Bjarne who made the gate, we decided they should just go and win the race, while the other guy would concentrate on getting third.

“Fortunately, we got the result we needed after I’d managed to get out in front.”

Pirates’ triumph means they ended their eight-match losing league sequence, which equalled the club’s previous worst runs of 2005, 1998 and 1982.