FORMER Swindon number one Scott Nicholls believes he doesn’t have anything to prove to the Robins’ fans when he returns to the Abbey Stadium with Coventry this evening.

The seven-time British champion endured an up-and-down season at Blunsdon as he attempted to fill the boots of Robins legend Leigh Adams, in a year when Swindon finished well adrift at the foot of the Elite League.

Nicholls failed to win over the majority of the Robins fans during what was a nightmare season for the club, and struggled on his first return to Wiltshire earlier this season as mechanical problems conspired to see him limp to a score of only four points.

But he will come up against his former club again tonight buoyed by his record-breaking national title and a good showing at the British Grand Prix in Cardiff, and believes he doesn’t have anything to prove to anyone but himself.

“Last year was a very difficult year for me both on and off the track, but I said all the time I was at Swindon that I was enjoying it, and I was,”

“I liked being at Swindon despite the problems we were having, but for whatever reason I just couldn’t get on with the track.

“I think I was a little like Troy Batchelor in that sense, although he has done really well to turn things around now.

“It was hard going in because I was the first rider to go in and replace Leigh Adams, and I was not happy with how I performed.

“But the fans were fantastic and I took it on the chin, and no-one was more frustrated than me about how I performed.

“But I don’t think I have anything to prove to anyone, because I know how good I can be, and there is only one person I need to prove myself to and that is me, because I know what I want to achieve.”

The Bees currently sit second-bottom of the Elite League table despite boasting the top two British riders in Chris Harris and Nicholls, and the Ipswich-based man believes they could easily be further up the table.

“It’s frustrating because things are not going as well as we want them too really, and to be honest it probably is a little bit like Swindon was last year,” he said.

“In any team you can afford to carry one person, and it is unfortunate for us that everyone has had some poor meetings, but at the same time everyone has had some great ones too. The problem is we have not all been firing at the same time.

“As with Swindon last year we have been exceptionally close to winning and drawing plenty of meetings but then ended up having bad luck.

“Some things are in your control, and some things are not.

“If a rider makes an error it is obviously our fault, but if you blow and engine or slip a chain those are not thing you can control.

“We have consistently had issues like that, and if we had a few more bits of good luck here and there we would be in a much better position.”