SIMON Stead is determined to secure an impressive points haul in this evening’s top of the table clash with Poole to ensure his stay at reserve is as brief as possible.

The Yorkshireman dropped into the bottom two for the Robins’ home victory over Belle Vue on Thursday having suffered a difficult season so far, but performed well to score 10+1 in a big home win.

The 30-year-old is unhappy to find himself in a position he has not occupied since the beginning of his top flight career with Belle Vue, and is determined to lift himself back into the main body of the team as quickly as possible.

“Being at reserve is a position I don’t want to be in for too long, and it is not a position I intend on stopping in,” he said.

“I will be doing everything I can to get myself out of that position as soon as possible because I don’t want to be a reserve and I don’t expect to be there.

“When I was signed at the start of the season I don’t think anyone here expected me to be there either.

“I have the same intention now I am at reserve as when I was at number one, five, three, four or two, and my outlook on the meeting is exactly the season.

“We have made a lot of changes to the staff, the mechanics and bikes and all those changes are working and I feel a lot more confident on the bike now, and everything is working a lot better.

“I need to start racking up some big points now to get out of there.”

Although Stead is unhappy to find himself at reserve, he can also see the positives after the likes of Peter Kildemand, Jason Doyle and Nick Morris all spent time in the bottom two before bouncing back into the main body of the team.

“I had a spell at reserve when I first went full-time with Belle Vue, and back then we had a balanced side with myself Joe Screen, Andy Smith and Jason Lyons all having spells there, and we got to the play-offs,” he said.

“This team now is better than the Belle Vue team we had then, and we have a lot of reasons to be confident going into the rest of the season.”

Stead is in confident mood ahead of tonight’s meeting, and is confident of bringing back some league points from Wimborne Road.

“There is no reason for us to not go there full of confidence because we are riding very well as a team at the moment,” he said.

“We normally get a good following at Poole and it would be nice to go there and get a result.

“If we go there and get a win we would be set up to get a first pick which is a massive bonus, but it looks pretty sure we are going to finish in the top two.

“It is down to the last few meetings now, and after Poole we have a couple of tricky meetings to go and we can’t take our foot off the gas.”