I THINK it’s fair to say we face our toughest challenge of the season tonight at home to Poole. The Pirates are a very strong side and are top of the league and unbeaten.

I THINK it’s fair to say we face our toughest challenge of the season tonight at home to Poole.

The Pirates are a very strong side and are top of the league and unbeaten.

After our poor efforts at Belle Vue on Monday night, we are going to need to sort ourselves out. I notice Pete Simmons has re-jigged the team around, putting Olly Allen at No.2, Claus Vissing at No.3 and Danny King at No.4, so hopefully that will make a difference. It will need to.

Linus Sundstrom has made a long journey across from Sweden, avoiding the Ash chaos, and we are going to need all his abilities if we are going to sink the Pirates.

Linus has made a good start to the season and I’m sure he is going to give us extra power at reserve, where poor Carl Wilkinson has been struggling a bit of late.

I appreciate it must have made unpleasant viewing for our fans on Sky on Monday night.

As a rider you can only go and do your best and I was happy with the way it went for me personally. But from a team angle, it was a disaster and Olly Allen is suffering a bit right now.

I’ve ridden with Olly for a few seasons at Coventry and there is no doubting his ability. He relies much on his gating and is a confidence rider.

Right now that confidence is not there and he just needs a decent meeting under his belt to get himself sorted out, I’m sure of that.

I’ve spoken to Olly and his dad and offered a few thoughts on what he may be able to do to make things right.

One thing I always believe from any rider who is having a bit of a rough time is that they must ride the bike hard and as fast as possible.

It’s no good stopping half way round, or struggling along at the back. Ride the bike fast, even if you are taking the wrong lines, but it will build up your confidence.

Of course it was ironic Tobi Kroner went so well for the Aces on Monday night. Good for him, I like Tobi and I’m sure he wanted to prove the Witches were wrong to leave him out.

But it’s a long season.

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WE were 100% disappointed to only pick up two points against Eastbourne last Thursday.

It was very frustrating and although I don’t get to watch every race, each time I did look up and watch, we seemed to be doing okay.

But we must do better and we should have picked up all three points, especially when Danny King beat Matej Zagar to keep us 10 points ahead.

The next night I enjoyed a bit of ‘overtime’ at Coventry, guesting for Belle Vue Aces.

Their No.1 Hans Andersen was one of many riders caught out by the travel crisis, so I stepped in and was pleased to get 14 points and help the Aces win.

Coventry have had an awful start to the season and haven’t won a meeting yet. But on paper, with Edward Kennett, Chris Harris and Rory Schlein, they look as strong as anyone.

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POOR old Carl Wilkinson suffered a bit of ‘zip’ trouble at Belle Vue on Monday.

The zip to his kevlars got stuck and he couldn’t zip them all the way down. So in his haste to sort something out he found a cable tie and tied that to them.

He looked a bit odd with this piece of cable tie hanging down between his legs!

I’ll leave you to imagine what we thought at first it was!

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MY half-cousin Jake Nicholls was in the pits a couple of weeks ago to give me a look.

Jake is a moto-cross rider of great ability, but has endured some awful injuries in recent seasons.

However he has started 2010 in excellent fashion in the British and Grand Prix series.

He’s riding in Belgium this weekend, so good luck Jake for that. And we will no doubt catch up soon.

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FINALLY: If you would like to ask me a question, I’ll be only too happy to answer it here in my column. Just e-mail mike.bacon@archant.co.uk and put ‘Question for Scott Nicholls’ and I’ll reply to them here in the column.

AS TOLD TO MIKE BACON