Lakeside were not able to capitalise on home advantage

Poole Pirates built up a six point advantage over the Lakeside Hammers in the first leg of the Elite League play-off final at the Arena Essex Raceway.

The Pirates took the early advantage by winning six of the first eight heats to build up a 12-point lead, before the Hammers responded to halve the deficit.

Bjarne Pedersen top scored for Poole with 12+1, whilst Andreas Jonsson rode to 15+1 for the Hammers.

The second leg takes place at Poole's Wimborne Road on Monday.

Along with Pedersen's performance, Adam Skornicki also starred with two wins and all of Poole's riders took at least one heat win.

For the Hammers, Jonsson won four times from seven rides and Jonas Davidsson scored 10+1 points on his return from injury.

Lakeside co-promoter Stuart Douglas admitted to BBC Essex they had come up against a strong Poole side.

"I can't complain about a lack of effort, but we made it a bit difficult for ourselves by being a bit slow at the beginning," he said.

"I think we could have done better there, but full credit to Poole they're a very good team."

I can't complain about a lack of effort, but we made it a bit difficult for ourselves by being a bit slow at the beginning Stuart Douglas

"I think we need a pat on the back for getting this far anyway," he said.

"We're very new to being in the play-off finals and I hope we can learn from this experience.

"We'll go down to Poole, give it our absolute best shot, hopefully give them a scare and if that doesn't work then we'll come back next year and try again."