Free night for Eagles regulars

Eagles passed the previous season-ticket record before Christmas and promoter Bob Brimson said: 'Its been absolutely heartwarming the way the fans have got behind the new regime, so I wanted to offer something back and show them how much I appreciated it.

'We are holding our children's season-ticket offer open which at fifty pounds for the entire year, including a programme, is less than the cost of the actual programme, but we want it to be more family and young person friendly and it has been an enormous success.

'The Challenge match against Poole is not your usual pre-season warm-up. The Eagles will be tasked with the entire speedway world with turning over the Pirates, who have broken the bank to buy two world-class riders and create one of the most top-heavy teams in history.

''Having Jason Crump and Bjarne Pedersen in your team is a huge gamble for Matt Ford. Much as I like Matt, I sincerely hope he comes a cropper with this. We would end up with a league like the Scottish football premiership where a couple of moneybags teams win everything. I want to give him a right spanking quite frankly.'