PIRATES chief Matt Ford has been very impressed with the team's May performances and believes a top three finish in the Sky Sports Elite League is not beyond them.

Their impressive unbeaten four-match home league run has buoyed the Poole Meridian Lifts' co-promoter.

And he has also taken a lot of satisfaction out of their recent displays on the road, where they have beaten Peterborough, drawn at Ipswich and lost narrowly at Oxford to lift themselves off the bottom of the table.

Pirates are now nicely ensconsed in fifth and nicely placed to hunt down an end-of-season top five-title play-off place.

It is third spot, however, that Ford feels is the most likely position they can aim for, with current leaders Eastbourne and Wolves his pick as the most likely clubs to fill the top two berths.

Ford, whose side entertain Wolves in a return league A fixture tonight (7.30pm), said: "We have begun to show we are a better team.

"We are not as good as Eastbourne or Wolves. But the season is a long one and you don't know how it will effect their form, while injuries might still play a big part.

"Who knows what will happen if we can just win a few more meetings on our travels. And all is not lost if we finish fourth or fifth.

"Our real goal, however, would be to finish third to have a home leg in the play-offs against the team finishing fourth.

"However, I'm quite sure the likes of Coventry will be keen to make sure they fill that position as well.

"Second host fifth and third entertain fourth in one-off matches to decide who meets in another one-off clash to find the team who will meet the first placed side in a two-legged championship final."

Ford now believes Pirates are just beginning to gel as a team, for the first time this season.

He is also hoping the return of fit again Grzegorz Walasek, for departed Magnus Zetterstrom, will help that process continue.

Ford said: "Tony Rickardsson is the pulse of the team at the moment. He has been holding everything together and we must thank God he is with us.

"Hans Andersen has come back brilliant from his loss of form and Bjarne Pedersen is doing his job and more.

"Greg says he feels fine after recovering from a broken ankle and is confident he can come back and do well.

"Gary Havelock is beside himself about why he can't get going properly, although I have no doubt he will put things right.

"Tomasz Chrzanowski has been dropped by Torun, his Polish League team so he only has his Poole racing commitments to concentrate on. And, hopefully, that will be beneficial to us.

"His home form has been good for us but his away form has been extremely disappointing.

"But he did show more commitment at Oxford with his best away performance so far, seven paid nine.

"Tomasz now has a great chance to concentrate on us fully and get himself together in the British League.

"Mariusz Staszewski has only had one or two bad meetings for us and they were mainly due to his engine problems.

"But he seems to have sorted them out and is now averaging six points.

"Mariusz is doing well so we just need to get Tomasz up a point.

"Then we won't be far away from the team we would want to be."

Pirates, who drew 45-45 at home to Wolves in the Knock-Out Cup earlier this season, need to win by 25 points to pick up the bonus.

Pirates: 1 Gary Havelock, 2 Grzegorz Walasek, 3 Hans Andersen, 4 Bjarne Pedersen, 5 Tony Rickardsson, 6 Tomasz Chrzanowski, 7 Mariusz Staszewski.

Wolves: 1 Mikael Karlsson, 2 David Howe, 3 Peter Karlsson, 4 Jesper Jensen, 5 Paul Hurry, 6 Daniel Nermark, 7 Chris Neath.