ELLIS: Things fell apart for us this season

ADAM ELLIS admitted ‘things fell apart’ for the Swindon Robins this season as the club succumbed to a 36-54 defeat against the Belle Vue Aces last night on the final evening of racing at the Abbey Stadium this season. TotalSport Swindon’s Ryan Walker got the thoughts of Ellis following the action.

After failing to reach the Premiership playoffs, Swindon Robins end their season knowing that they won’t be retaining their league title. And when asked for his analysis, Ellis stated that this season has been tough for the squad.

“This season has been tough,” said Ellis.

“We struggled towards the end after making a good start to the year and spent most of the season top of the league.

“Things kind of fell apart in the second half of the season and I think everyone ran out of steam,” he added.

“We weren’t all riding consistently well on the same nights, which is disappointing.

“This year has been the most competitive year of racing we have had in this league and hopefully we can bounce back next year,” he said.

Problems in consistency will be highlighted as the clubs main reason for failing to achieve silverware this season, but Ellis believes that no individual rider is to blame and that the team as a collective was simply not good enough.

“It’s no individual riders fault for this season,” said Ellis.

“One night two of us would have an off night and then the next week it would be another two struggling.

“None of us were clicking at the same time and that’s what cost us this season.

“We knew there was pressure on us in the top five to score the points and win the meetings,” he said.

“Zach [Wajtknecht] was riding really well for us and scoring double figures at home and that meant some of us could afford to have an off night.

“We just weren’t good enough as a team in the end,” he added.

Having kept five riders from the title-winning side of last year, many praised Alun Rossiter for keeping a strong line-up together. And Ellis agreed that this was a good decision despite the side not reaching the heights of last season.

“I think it was a good thing to keep most of the riders from last year and we hit the ground running this season,” stated Ellis.

“We knew each other a lot from last season and it felt like there was a really good team spirit.

“I just think it’s been a bit unfortunate for us.

“A lot of teams made changes and we felt confident enough that we wouldn’t need to make lots of changes,” he said.

“That month and a half of losing meetings cost us big time in the end,” he added.

Now completing his second season racing for the Robins, Ellis has quickly become a fan favourite. And on analysis of his own performances this year, the Team GB rider explained this has been a year of improvements for himself.

“I’ve increased my average this season and that’s the same in the Championship,” said Ellis.

“For me, it has been a fairly good season and I enjoyed coming back here to race at Swindon every week.

“If the opportunity comes up next season to stay with Lakeside and Swindon then obviously I’d love that,” he added.

“It has been a good year for me personally and I feel like I have kicked on quite a bit from last season. 

“I want to keep improving at Swindon,” he said.