BASEMENT boys Oxford Silver Machine pushed leaders Poole all the way before letting it slip in the final three heats to lose 54-41 in Dorset last night.

It did not look good for struggling Oxford with just five heats remaining, as they trailed 38-22 and were down to only six fit men, following the withdrawal of Stefan Andersson through illness.

They were also without the unavailable Niels Kristian Iversen, riding in Denmark, and his original stand-in, Michal Makovsky, who was deemed ineligible by the BSPA.

However, just when everyone wondered whether Oxford promoter Nigel Wagstaff was going to use his two tactical riders to score double points, the Cowley supremo pulled off two masterstrokes.

First, he introduced Greg Hancock as a tactical substitute in heat 11 and the American promptly rode to a 7-1 with Travis McGowan over Krzysztof Kasprzak to cut Oxford's deficit to 39-29.

Amazingly, it would have been an 8-1 had not McGowan mistakenly passed Hancock for first place just before the finish line.

Then Wagstaff brought in Henka Gustafsson as his second tactical in the next race and he grabbed an 8-1 win with Jesper B Jensen over Matej Ferjan to trim Poole's lead to only 40-37.

That left the Pirates stunned. Not only were they now 86-81 adrift on aggregate, but they had a real fight on their hands to win.

Poole won the final three races 4-2, 5-1 and 5-1 to grab victory, and with it the bonus point for a 95-90 aggregate win.