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ALUN Rossiter slammed tonight's Craven Shield defeat at Poole a "lottery" but refused to write his young guns off from carrying out a great escape.

The Swindon Robins boss was furious with the Wimborne Road track after seeing his side crash 54-39 and leave themselves needing a 13-point winning margin in Thursday's Abbey Stadium return.

Captain marvel Leigh Adams' 16 points, including a crucial tactical ride, has at least given Rossiter's men some hope, but he insists better gates and it could have been a different story.

Gates three and one favoured the riders all night with Rossiter claiming gates two and four were "nothing short of a disgrace".

He said: "I am really disappointed because the whole night turned into a lottery because gates two and four were that bad.

"By the end we were just trying to carry out damage limitation and it is shame it had to be like that. The reaction of their manager when they won the toss for the last heat showed the importance of the gates.

"Normally the gates are quite even here. I am not making excuses but the night really was turned into a lottery."

James Wright's admirable paid six return at least showed his potential and Rossiter is confident his young side will come out firing in tonight's return.

He said: "It is a big ask but we will give it a real go. We have got racers here and they do not know when they are beat.

"James Wright was a real positive for me, I thought he rode really well and hopefully we can what is needed at home."

11:14pm Wednesday 26th March 2008

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