PIRATES co-promoter Matt Ford has stressed they are "confident" of retaining the Craven Shield.

Poole Meridian Lifts get their south group qualifying challenge off to a start at home to Eastbourne tonight (Sept 18) at 7.30pm.

And Ford believes the Dorset club are quite capable of securing the trophy they carried off at the end of last season.

The Wimborne Road chief said: "Of course we are disappointed not to be in the Elite League play-offs any more.

"But we have the chance to salvage something from our season with the Craven Shield.

"It was always going to be hard to overcome Coventry at Brandon in the play-offs once we had lost our chance of having home advantage in that tie.

"So we just have to try our best in the Craven Shield.

"The team are confident we can win it. The new look team has taken time to gel but I really believe we will do well in the competition."

Pirates operate rider replacement for the injured Gary Havelock tonight as they come up against the league play-off title finalists.

Apart from that, Poole will be at full strength, although they will be hoping Tony Rickard-sson and Bjarne Pedersen have got over illness problems.

Eastbourne bring in the Isle of Wight's Adam Shields as a guest for injured Toni Svab.

Pirates will travel to Oxford on Friday for their second group match without Lars Gunnestad, who is unavailable.

The Norwegian competes in the European Championship Final in Rybnik on Saturday and has to be in Poland on Friday for official practice.

Dean Barker will come in as a guest for Havvy at Cowley, while Paul Lee, of Premier League Swindon, will replace Gunnestad.

Pirates asset Alun Rossiter has had an operation on damaged knee ligaments in a Bournemouth hospital.

Rossiter, who also broke his right tibia and scaphoid in a track spill at Poole last month, is now recovering from the operation.

Poole's Andre Compton will line up in the British semi-final at Swindon on September 26.

Tonight's teams, Pirates: 1 Rider replacement for Gary Havelock, 2 Bjarne Peder-sen, 3 Hans Andersen, 4 Lars Gunnestad, 5 Tony Rickardsson, 6 Henka Gustafsson, 7 Andre Compton.

Eastbourne: 1 Mark Loram, 2 Stefan Ander-sson, 3 Joe Screen, 4 David Norris, 5 Dean Barker, 6 Savalas Clouting, 7 Adams Shields (guest).