PIRATES chief Matt Ford must have thought he was a fireman, not a speedway promoter, during the majority of the Dorset club’s dismal 2009 campaign.

From the opening weekend of the season, when the defending Elite League champions lost Jason Doyle and number eight Craig Watson to long-term injury, until the tapes finally stayed down at the end of October, Ford was continually fighting fires.

And they were such big blazes that the original fire was never actually put out as Poole Castle Cover – many pundits’ tip to push pre-season favourites Swindon all the way for the silverware – slumped to the foot of table.

Pirates ended up second from bottom, only avoiding the indignity of a promotion-relegation play-off against Edinburgh after finishing above basement boys Belle Vue on superior race points difference.

In fact, Poole’s 2009 season was a nightmare – their worst since Ford took over the reins of the club back in 1999.

Not since 1998 had the Dorset outfit – more accustomed to be challenging for titles, cups and shields in the past decade rather than fighting to avoid the wooden spoon – finished as low.

And the ‘Season of Woe’ must have seemed as though it had been going on for as long as those 11 years to Ford.

It would have been the same for the three riders who lasted the full course, Chris Holder, Bjarne Pedersen and Joe Screen, and the Wimborne Road faithful, such was the agony everyone must have felt as Pirates uncharacteristically crashed to defeat time after time.

Those fires just kept coming and coming, and no matter how much water Ford sprayed on them, the flames just kept rising higher and higher.

First, Doyle (broken shoulder) and Watson (broken leg) sustained their season-ending injuries in an individual meeting at Newport on the opening weekend of the campaign.

So Poole were already two riders down from their original squad of nine before their own fixtures had even started.

Secondly, Kyle Legault felt a sharp jet of pain in his leg during Pedersen’s testimonial at Wimborne Road four days later and was then unable to complete the Elite Shield first leg at Eastbourne the following weekend.

The diagnosis couldn’t have been worse. Legault was also out for the rest of the season with complications to a broken thigh injury he originally sustained in 2008, so it was a case of three down, only six left.

Ford struggled to find suitable replacements because all the best riders on similar averages to Doyle, Legault and Watson had already been snapped up by Pirates’ top-flight rivals.

The Pole Lukasz Jankowski came in, but was way out of his depth.

Poole were then hammered 63-32 at home by Coventry – their third biggest home league mauling of all-time and fourth in any match at Wimborne Road since the club’s formation in 1948.

Carl Stonehewer, one of Poole’s doubling-up riders sharing the number six berth, inexplicably endured the worst debut appearance by a Pirate ever.

He failed to score from seven rides as they opened with a 49-41 defeat at Arlington, with Eastbourne also winning 49-43 at Wimborne Road to lift the Elite Shield 98-84 on aggregate.

Stoney, not surprisingly, didn’t hang around long and although Tomasz Piszcz and Paul Hurry did commendable jobs, they lost their places at reserve as Ford hinged everything on getting Hans Andersen into a new-look team for the beginning of June.

But the controversial move surprisingly backfired.

Although the Dane immediately produced the goods, only failing to hit paid double figures once, Poole’s dream top-end of Andersen, Holder, Pedersen and Screen frustratingly didn’t receive the back-up they needed from Daniel Davidsson or the reserves.

Davidsson, Ford’s first signing after starring at reserve as Pirates stormed to the 2008 title, didn’t produce regularly in a second string role and paid with his place when he was axed at the end of July.

It didn’t matter what combination the Dorset club lined up with at reserve, whether it included Piszcz, Hurry, Chris Neath, Stonehewer, Ben Wilson, Karol Baran, Paul Fry, Steve Boxall or James Holder, Poole were rarely able to outscore their opponents in that department – a vital requirement for any title-chasing team – before or after Andersen’s arrival.

To top it all, Holder fell off a moto-cross bike and broke his collarbone just before Andersen joined and missed two league meetings, which Pirates agonisingly lost by two (46-44 at home to Eastbourne) and one (47-46 at Lakeside).

Key man Holder came back, fell again and aggravated the problem in a Sky TV thriller which saw depleted five-man Poole, who also lost Davidsson to injury during that meeting, hold Hammers to a remarkable 45-45 draw.

It was the night when Hurry produced the riveting ride of Pirates’ season in heat 14 to beat Jonas Davidsson from the back and keep the home side in the hunt for an unforgettable point.

Another Pole, Baran, was again way out of his depth, albeit on borrowed bikes, and was soon given the boot, while, perplexedly, Pedersen struggled badly at times.

Compared to his previous own high standards, his average, without bonuses, bewilderingly dropped by more than a point to 7.77.

As if all those problems weren’t enough, Pirates were at the centre of an alleged rider average manipulation row, with their performances in 56-39 and 55-38 league defeats in May at Swindon and Peterborough, respectively, coming under the spotlight.

But the club and their riders were cleared of any wrong-doing by an official investigation undertaken by the Speedway Control Bureau, who declared the allegations against Poole could not be proven.

Ford had hoped the fact six teams would be contesting the play-offs would still give new-look Pirates, with Andersen on board, the chance of title glory if they could put a great run together in the final five months of the campaign.

As it was, the Dorset side slumped to six home defeats, won only once on the road, 48-41 at Eastbourne in August, and never looked like finishing in the top six, let alone the top four.

Pirates’ woes were summed up by the fact they were forced to use 17 riders, who were all contracted to the club at one time or other and were not guests, in league and cup – the most they’d used in those competitions in a season since 1996, and also in 1979 and 1974.