MAGNUS Zetterstrom has been quick to apologise to Poole's fans after they slumped to the club's joint biggest Elite League defeat at Oxford last night (August 27).

The RIAS Pirates lost by a mammoth 36-points margin to equal their heaviest reverse in the top-flight since the league was revamped in 1998.

Already going into the meeting using rider replacement for unavailable Antonio Lindback, Poole were soon down to only five men when Bjarne Pedersen pulled out after the first race through injury.

He suffered a nasty spill on a wet track after colliding with Oxford's Travis McGowan coming off the fourth bend of the first lap at the Cowley Stadium track.

Pedersen had scorched outside Greg Hancock to take the lead on the second corner but then fell heavily as McGowan passed him to surge to the front.

The Dane withdrew from the meeting with concussion and heavy bruising to his legs.

After that, Poole put up little fight on a tricky surface that had thousands of gallons of water pumped off it earlier in the day.

Ryan Sullivan was the only Pirate to trouble Oxford, but even his two heat wins - one when a tactical rider scoring double points - couldn't stave off their joint record defeat in front of a 2,000 crowd that included about 300 supporters of the Dorset club.

The heavy setback was the worst since Poole went down 63-27 at Ipswich on June 4, 1998.

It also means Pirates still need to secure four points from their final two league matches, at home and away to Belle Vue, to mathematically confirm their place in the title play-off final.

Zetterstrom, who struggled to get six paid eight from seven rides, said: "I feel sorry for our fans, especially the ones who travelled here tonight.

"It is awful for them to see a bad meeting like this.

"I can only say that we did our best but it was just one of those nights when everything went wrong for us.

"We did the right thing to get the meeting on because we don't want any rain-offs at this late stage in the season.

"But, unfortunately, Bjarne had a bad crash in the first heat and that took the air out of all of us in our side."

Zetterstrom, who confirmed Poole did not lodge any complaints about the condition of the track, added: "I don't know what else to say really.

"I can only promise our fans that we will pay them back by trying to win the title for them."

Pirates conceded eight 5-1s, one 5-0 and one 4-2. They only won one heat 6-3 and drew four others.

Oxford Silver Machine promoter Nigel Wagstaff told the crowd before the meeting started 15 minutes late because of late work on the track.

"Things are not perfect. It is nobody's fault but the weather, the referee is happy with the track, but the racing might not be up to our normal standards.

"For the betterment of British speedway we sometimes have to go ahead with these meetings."

Heat Details

Oxford: 1 Rider replacement for Sebastian Ulamek, 2 Travis McGowan (2*-3-3-3-2*-2) 15+2, 3 Ryan Fisher (3-2*-1*-3-1*) 10+3, 4 Rafal Dobrucki (1-3-2-2*-1) 9+1, 5 Greg Hancock (3-3-2*-2*-3) 13+2, 6 Jonas Davidsson (ret-3-3-3) 9, 7 Niels-Kristian Iversen (3-2*-fell exc-2*-2*) 9+3, 8 Jason Newitt (did not ride). Team manager: Nigel Wagstaff.

Pirates: 1 Bjarne Pedersen (fell exc) 0, 2 Krzysztof Kasprzak (ret-0-1-0-ret) 1, 3 Matej Ferjan (ret-ret-ret-0-4) 4, 4 Rider replacement for Antonio Lindback,

5 Ryan Sullivan (1-2-6-1-3) 13, 6 Magnus Zetterstrom (1*-2-1*-0-1-1-0) 6+2, 7 Daniel Davidsson (2-0-1-1-1-0-0) 5. Team manager: Neil Middleditch.

Referee: Ronnie Allan.

Ht 1: (re-run) Hancock, McGowan, Pedersen (fell excluded), Kasprzak (retired), 60.80 (5-0).

Ht 2: Iversen, D Davidsson, Zetterstrom, J Davidsson (retired), 60.52 (8-3).

Ht 3: Fisher, Zetterstrom, Dobrucki, Ferjan (retired), 61.15 (12-5).

Ht 4: Hancock, Iversen, Sullivan, D Davidsson, 60.05 (17-6).

Ht 5: Dobrucki, Fisher, D Davidsson, Kasprzak, 60.58 (22-7).

Ht 6: (re-run) McGowan, Sullivan, Zetterstrom, Iversen (fell excluded), 59.31 (25-10).

Ht 7: J Davidsson, Hancock, Kasprzak, Ferjan (retired), 61.05 (30-11).

Ht 8: McGowan, Iversen, D Davidsson, Kasprzak, 59.64 (35-12).

Ht 9: Sullivan (tactical rider double points), Dobrucki, Fisher, Zetterstrom, 60.49 (38-18).

Ht 10: McGowan, Dobrucki, D Davidsson, Ferjan (retired), 60.87 (43-19).

Ht 11: J Davidsson, Hancock, Zetterstrom, Kasprzak (retired), 60.52 (48-20).

Ht 12: Fisher, Iversen, Zetterstrom, Ferjan, 61.18 (53-21).

Ht 13: Hancock, McGowan, Sullivan, D Davidsson, 60.30 (58-22).

Ht 14: J Davidsson, Ferjan (tactical rider double points), Dobrucki, D Davidsson, 61.36 (62-26).

Ht 15: Sullivan, McGowan, Fisher, Zetterstrom, 61.02 (65-29).