Oxford Cheetahs hopes of ending their bad home run in the Sky Sports Elite League have been hampered by the absence of Brian Andersen and Ales Dryml for the tough meeting against Poole Pirates at the Stadium on Friday, May 17.

Brian AndersonAndersen is still in pain following his King's Lynn crash, and won't ride again until he undergoes an MRI scan which has been booked for early next week.

Ales Dryml, meanwhile, is away on world championship duty.

Former Cheetah Dean Barker will guest for Andersen at No 1, while rider-replacement will be utilised in Dryml's absence.

Team manager Colin Meredith said of Andersen: "He has a trapped nerve either in the neck or back and doctors are loath to use physio on the injury until they know the outcome of the scan."

Oxford's fans would love to see a victory, especially after the comments last year of Gary Havelock, who inferred that Cheetahs took full advantage of Lukas Dryml's injury to win the title.

A victory for Dryml over the former world champion would send the home fans wild, so we can expect some fireworks.

Meredith added: "Poole are beatable, but are on a good run at the moment. Johno's change of engines from Jawa to GM has seen a big improvement and if Mark Lemon, who could be the key, is on form, we can do it."

Poole beat Ipswich easily at Wimborne Road on Wednesday, with world champion Tony Rickardsson top-scoring once again.

Ricko will again lead the Pirates, and the battles with Leigh Adams should be interesting to say the least.

**Oxford: Rider-replacement, L Dryml, Johnston, A Dryml, Adams, Lemon, Appleton.

**Poole: Havelock, Pedersen, Andersen, Zetterstrom, Rickardsson, Chrzanowski, Staszewski.