SWINDON boss Alun Rossiter has warned that his side’s Elite League play-off semi-final clash with Birmingham is not a foregone conclusion despite the Robins’ impressive victory against the Brummies last night.

The Robins will return to Perry Barr on Monday evening in the play-offs after claiming a last-gasp 46-44 victory in the Midlands despite having to cope without captain Hans Andersen and Jason Doyle, with the deciding second leg coming at Blunsdon a week later.

Regular-season table-toppers Poole chose to go to Lakeside in their semi-final, and Rossiter is happy to be returning to a track where his side have enjoyed two impressive wins this season.

“If you are going to win the league you have to take on whoever you get, and if you go around wanting to pick and choose that is when you start to show your weaknesses,” he said.

“We would have taken on anyone but we are happy to be coming back to Birmingham.

“I think Poole have been comfortable at Lakeside all year so I am not too surprised and in honesty I am pretty happy about it.

“Having Hans and Jason back next week is a big plus for us, and hopefully we can come here and get the win, but anyone who thinks it is going to be a walk in the park is wrong because they ran us very close at home.”

The Robins stormed back from 10 points down after nine heats to claim victory in the second city, and Rossiter was delighted with the manner of the victory in their final regular season match.

“It was a great performance by everybody and I am really pleased because they all dug-deep and came away with some points,” he said.

“It looked like it was going away from us, but the way we came back was great because we have put a good marker down now for the play-offs.

“We didn’t have Hans and we didn’t have Jason, but saying that Seb (Alden) has come in and done a fantastic job for us tonight.”