DANNY Ford was pleased to see a ‘much-improved’ Poole Pirates side as they emphatically beat Workington Comets in the first leg of the BSN Series semi-final.

Pirates beat Comets 59-31, after coming into the meeting off the back of consecutive losses, including the first home loss at Wimborne Road since 2022 at the hands of Oxford.

Pirates next travel to Plymouth Gladiators in the Championship on Saturday, August 24.

Poole promoter Ford told the Daily Echo: “As I said in the build up to the meeting going into Wednesday, it was crucial for us to bounce back straight away from our first home league defeat in two years against Oxford the week prior.

“We certainly did that one to seven. We were a much-improved team.

“A few guys who had been struggling in the past few weeks bounced back in emphatic fashion.”

The promoter said it was a ‘really encouraging’ performance, saying: “We now hopefully have got a little bit more momentum behind us and there's a real feel-good factor in the camp which hopefully will see us carry this forward into the crucial September month where we've got playoffs coming up and hopefully one or two more cup finals as well.

“We did a practice on the Tuesday for the riders riding and then Ben and Tom coaching, overseeing the guys, giving them tips.

“Obviously, those guys are certainly in fantastic form, so anything they could pass on to the other guys was crucial and I think it just built the team atmosphere and bond in the pits that much further.

“Hopefully we're back on the on course now and that slip up a few weeks ago was a thing of the past.”

The second leg of the semi final will take place on Saturday, August 31 in Cumbria.