SWINDON Robins team manager Alun Rossiter admitted he was ‘over the moon’ with his side’s 10-point advantage in the first leg of their SGB Premiership semi-final against Wolverhampton Wolves.

Travelling up to the west midlands to get their fourth attempt at the first leg underway, a torrential downpour threatened to make it a wasted trip for the coachload of Robins fans who had made their way up the M5, however, great work from the Monmore Green track staff ensured the meeting got underway with only a short delay.

And both the supporters and Rossiter were glad they did once a close meeting gradually fell the way of the visitors late on – a one-point deficit turning into a 10-point lead for the Abbey Stadium outfit after heat 10.

The Swindon team manager revealed post-meeting that the initial plan had been to come away with just a small deficit or even a slender lead to take back home for the second leg, however the substantial points difference borderline shocked Rossiter.

He said: “I’m absolutely over the moon with that. We came here to keep it close and we were doing that, even with the 5-0 to them early on.

“I thought that might have put us in a bit of trouble, but it ended up evening itself out in the end.

“But to pull away by 10 points – that’s fantastic.

“I was more than confident that we could come up here and get a win, but if I’m someone would have told me we’d win by 10 points, I wouldn’t have believed them.

“I would have been happy if we were a couple of points down or four points up, but these guys aren’t stupid – they’re not going to think: ‘oh yes, we’ve won this’, they’ll be going home knowing that they’ve got another job to do.”

Greasy track conditions meant even the most skilful of riders struggled to assert their dominance on proceedings – Jason Doyle went down in heat five with no one around him as Wolves scooped a rare 5-0 heat advantage.

A handful of mistakes aside, Rossiter felt his septet adapted to conditions much faster than their counterparts and mused that perhaps it was brain and not brawn that won the day for Swindon.

He said: “Our boys got stuck in, we were making fast starts, and full credit to them all because they were fantastic.

“Both sets of riders really – you’ve got to give them credit because the rain really did make it tricky. But that’s what happens when it gets wet, unfortunately.

“Sometimes it’s brains and not brawn that triumphs on the bike in those conditions and I think our experience showed out there.

“There were a few occasions where boys were riding a little bit out of their depth and they should have been staying calm and waiting for the right moment. I’ve got to say, I felt like our boys did that.”