Can Lynn win inspire Swindon to push on?

SWINDON ROBINS bounced back to winning ways with a fantastic 50-40 home victory over the King’s Lynn Stars in their latest fixture. And after leapfrogging the Norfolk side off the bottom of the Premiership table, Swindon finally seems to be ready to mount a charge on those at the top.

But can the Robins now push for the playoffs and find a winning consistency in their results? Total Sport Swindon’s Ryan Walker gives his analysis.

Many expected Jason Doyle’s return to Swindon at the start of the season to bring immediate success after the 2017 World Champion re-joined the Robins following an unsuccessful season riding at Somerset.

But a difficult opening to the 2019 British Premiership season, that has had track issues and rider changes at the forefront of the problems, has seen Swindon stutter as Alun Rossiter attempts to guide the club to their third league title.

Swindon’s new track came with the promise of better riding and more entertaining racing, but issues with the track material have led to many riders questioning the quality of Swindon’s revamped circuit with home riders themselves left visibly frustrated during some meetings so far this season.

But despite ongoing track issues, Swindon have recorded wins with their latest outing arguably their most impressive performance of the season so far after Troy Batchelor’s 14 point paid maximum helped inspire Swindon to victory over King’s Lynn.

But even at this early stage in the season, Swindon must push on and put together a winning run of results if they are to finish the season in the playoff positions.

The departures of James Shanes, Dawid Lampart, and Zach Wajtknecht have all had there effect on the close-knit side with Wajtknecht’s decision to take a break from speedway coming as a shock to many who have high hopes for the 21-year-old.

But where others leave, new faces arrive and team manager Alun Rossiter appears to have found the magic touch with his first mid-season team changes since the title-winning season of 2017.

Ellis Perks has provided the boost at reserve that Swindon needed with his recent high point-scoring allowing for some pressure to be taken off of Swindon’s big-name riders.

Whilst in comparison Rasmus Jensen has had a similar effect to that of Tobiasz Musielak’s introduction to the team in 2017, with the Danish rider already proving a threat to other teams and his daredevil racing style quickly establishing Jensen as a favourite amongst fans.

Rossiter is yet to decide on a replacement for Wajtknecht and it will be interesting to see how the manager works within his existing 42.5 average limit to find a suitable replacement for the remainder of the year.

A disappointing 2017 season saw the Swindon Robins miss out on the top four as the Poole Pirates went on to lift the title. And with the season now well underway, the Robins face an uphill task to fight their way back to the top with both the Belle Vue Aces and Ipswich Witches early pacesetters at the top of the table.

Last week’s victory over King’s Lynn earned Swindon just their second league win of the season and it is crucial to the club’s success that this is now backed up with a run of positive results.

Swindon have arguably the best team in the league on paper, but anything can happen in speedway and now the Swindon Robins must demonstrate their resoluteness, quality, and team unity to help get this side back to the top of British speedway.

There is still a long way to go this season but we already look set for a close race to the finish line.