POOLE boss Neil Middleditch had no excuses after his high-flying side slipped to a narrow Elite League defeat in a thrilling match in Manchester last night (July 5).

RIAS Pirates seemed set to maintain their recent good away run when they led 9-3 after two races.

But the home side pegged them back and there was never more than four points between the sides all night.

And Belle Vue had the edge in their ability to fill the minor placings, a point accepted by Middleditch.

He said: "We are not disappointed because Belle Vue deserved their win and we got the bonus point.

"After our win at Oxford on Friday, to have won this one as well would have been a bonus on top of a bonus point.

"Joe Screen had a fine meeting for Belle Vue which made the difference - perhaps he was sending me a message in my role as Great Britain team manager.

"But we had one or two riders who didn't quite perform to their best and we needed to be better in getting the minor placings when the Aces had their reserves out."

Poole's lead at the top of the table was cut by one to seven after Wolves defeated Swindon 52-44 at home last night.

Oxford are up to fourth after they beat Eastbourne 51-43 at Cowley in the televised meeting.

In Manchester, Grand Prix man Bjarne Pedersen had given Pirates a flying start, jetting out of the gate ahead of in-form home star Kenneth Bjerre to win in a quick time of 59.4 seconds.

Krzysztof Kasprzak and Daniel Davidsson gave Poole a maximum in the second race.

But the Aces hit back immediately with four points in the third when Joe Screen overtook former Belle Vue rider Matej Ferjan to follow Craig Watson home.

Jason Crump beat Ryan Sullivan from the gate in heat four as Belle Vue pulled back to 12-12 and the points were shared in the next two races as the contest evened out.

Poole went behind for the first time after a thrilling seventh heat when Crump had to pull out all the stops to hold off a determined Lindback challenge and send the home side into a 22-20 lead.

Pirates fell four points adrift after the best race of the night so far, the eighth, when Screen chased Zetterstrom for four laps before taking him around the outside off the final bend.

Screen met his first defeat by a Poole rider when Sullivan beat him all the way in heat nine, but the Aces filled the minor placings to keep their four-point advantage.

That remained the situation for the next two when the points were shared.

Middleditch pulled a massive stoke in the 12th when he replaced Davidsson with Kasprzak and the Pole raced to victory with Ferjan taking Watson for full points to level the scores again.

The meeting really boiled up in the 13th heat when Pedersen and Sullivan outgated the Bjerre and Crump combination.

Pedersen swept away on his own to take the chequered flag but the Belle Vue pair picked off Sullivan to gain a share of the points after they had made poor starts.

Poole slipped two points adrift after a tremendous heat 14 in which Lindback avoided a Belle Vue 5-1 by passing Collins on the line to make sure Pirates took the aggregate bonus point.

But Crump ensured a home victory by winning a last heat decider from Pedersen.

Heat Details

Belle Vue: 1 Kenneth Bjerre (2-2-2-2) 8, 2 Rider replacement for Tomasz Jedrzejak, 3 (guest) Craig Watson (3-0-1*-1*-1) 6+2, 4 Joe Screen (2*-3-3-2-3-1) 14+1, 5 Jason Crump (3-3-3-1*-3) 13+1, 6 Neil Collins (1-1-1-0-1) 4, 7 George Stancl (0-0-1*-1-0) 2+1. Team manager: John Perrin. Pirates: 1 Bjarne Pedersen (3-2-2-3-2) 12, 2 Magnus Zetterstrom (1-1*-2-1*) 5+2, 3 Matej Ferjan (0-0-0-2*-) 2+1, 4 Antonio Lindback (1-2-3-2) 8, 5 Ryan Sullivan (2-3-3-0-0) 8, 6 Daniel Davidsson (2*-0-0) 2+1, 7 Krzysztof Kasprzak (3-0-0-3-0) 6. Team manager: Neil Middleditch. Referee: Dave Dowling. Ht 1: Pedersen, Bjerre, Zetterstrom, Stancl, 59.4 (2-4). Ht 2: Kasprzak, Davidsson, Collins, Stancl, 59.8 (3-9). Ht 3: Watson, Screen, Lindback, Ferjan, 60.4 (8-10). Ht 4: Crump, Sullivan, Collins, Kasprzak, 59.9 (12-12). Ht 5: Screen, Pedersen, Zetterstrom, Watson, 60.8 (15-15). Ht 6: Sullivan, Bjerre, Stancl, Davidsson, 59.8 (18-18). Ht 7: Crump, Lindback, Collins, Ferjan, 60.0 (22-10). Ht 8: Screen, Zetterstrom, Stancl, Kasprzak, 60.6 (26-22). Ht 9: Sullivan, Screen, Watson, Davidsson, 60.2 (29-25). Ht 10: Lindback, Bjerre, Watson, Ferjan, 59.6 (32-28). Ht 11: Crump, Pedersen, Zetterstrom, Collins, 60.4 (35-31). Ht 12: Kasprzak, Ferjan, Watson, Stancl, 60.4 (36-36). Ht 13: Pedersen, Bjerre, Crump, Sullivan, 60.6 (39-39). Ht 14: Screen, Lindback, Collins, Kasprzak, 60.6 (43-41). Ht 15: Crump, Pedersen, Screen, Sullivan, 60.1 (47-43). Last night's other results, Elite League: Oxford 51 Eastbourne 43, Wolves 52 Swindon 44. Premier League: Newcastle 50 (Jason Lyons 18) Stoke 43, Exeter 61 Edinburgh 33.