SWINDON Robins secured their place in the play-offs with a losing point at Coventry Bees on a rain affected evening.

Alun Rossiter’s side put in a spirited display as they fell to a 47-43 defeat, courtesy of a heat 15 maximum for the hosts.

Swindon welcomed back Peter Kildemand and the Dane had a mixed night as he tried to fill the big shoes left by the injured Darcy Ward.

It was left to him and Grzegorz Zengota to clinch the win with the scores level at 42-42 going into the final heat.

However, Danny King and guest Maz Fricke both gated well, on a night of little overtaking due to the wet conditions off the racing line, and the Bees were able to secure the win.

“It is not really the way I wanted to come back into the team, but that being said I am glad I am here now,” said Kildemand after the meeting.

“I’ve come to a point in my season where it is quiet, so I could fit it into the schedule and I am really glad to help the Robins out.

“It wasn’t bad for me, but it could have been better. The conditions were really difficult tonight and it was really hard to make any passes.

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“At one point I thought we wouldn’t be racing, but they did a good job to push it back half an hour and get the race going.

“Getting the point for the play-offs was what we wanted to do and now we need to get some confidence before they start.

“Last year when we came to this point I was tired because I had been doing too much, but now I feel fresh and I am hungry to race.”

A heavy rain shower, about an hour prior to the scheduled start of the meeting, left several patches of standing water on the track.

After a track inspection taken by both teams it was agreed to let the meeting go ahead, with a delayed start of 8pm.

Lewis Rose was back from a month on the sidelines to replace Robert Branford and put in a solid performance as he picked up a heat win in his 6+1 points on the night.

Meanwhile, the home side welcomed former Robins man Kyle Howarth back to their starting septet after his recent capture and he had a mixed night, picking up a 5+1 on his return to Brandon.

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Coventry took an early lead thanks to a heat one win for skipper Chris Harris, but things were back level by heat four when Kildemand marked his return with a first heat win.

Having regained the lead in heat seven with a win for Fricke, Coventry looked to take the meeting away from the visitors as heat wins for James Sarjeant and Jason Garrity in heats eight and nine secured back-to-back maximums.

However, Swindon responded well and secured two maximums of their own when Aaron Summers took heat 10, followed by Zengota in heat 11.

Everything came down to the last heat of the night and King and Fricke got off to the perfect start and held off a strong challenge to take the maximum and secure the win for the home side but four points.

Despite being disappointed b the result, reserve Wright knows the job was done by securing a point and now turns his attention to the play-offs.

“It was a tough night with the weather but I think we managed to do alright and get the point we needed to get into the play-offs,” said Robins reserve Wright.

“All in all it was pretty good and we ran them to the end in the way we came back.

“The track was pretty bad, but it was the same for everyone. It was just the fact that there wasn’t much racing with the water.

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“Whoever got out the start in front would be the one to win the race, but it ended up not too bad.

“It was better as the night went on, with the tyres just drying out the track each time they went out.

“We grouped together as a team and tried to get all the riders together and remember that all we needed to do was gate well.

“We had choice in heat 15, but our boys couldn’t get out of the traps.

“It is a shame we couldn’t get the three points, but we did what we needed to and now it is on with the play-offs.”