Newport's league fixtures may have got off to a flying start on Saturday evening at Workington but yesterday the Wasps hopes literally bit the dust as injuries to key riders Craig Watson and Kristian Lund saw a reversal of fortune against visitors Stoke.

There was incident right from the off as Stoke veteran Alan Mogridge fell when leading the opening heat.

Both Newport's Mike Coles and Kristian Lund were chasing the visiting skipper, Coles took evasive action but Lund slammed in to the fence, his back seemingly taking the impact. Lund did win the re-run of the the heat but withdrew from the meeting immediately.

The popular Dane did return to the stadium later and was walking quite freely but was shaken-up by his ordeal.

Craig Watson was the other Newport rider to end up lying on Hayley Stadium circuit after an awkward looking tumble in heat 13.

Watson who up until then had been unbeaten was chasing Stoke guest Rusty Harrison and lifted coming out of the fourth bend on the opening lap.

Watson slid along the track from the pits bend to the start/finish line and was down being treated before being whisked away to the Royal Gwent with a suspected broken ankle.

The Wasps had a great start with three heat maximum's in the first five races but Stoke with some clever tactical rides from Harrison and Mogridge in heats six and eight respectively managed to eat into their hosts twelve point advantage.

Harrison was the Potters' top-scorer with fifteen points and was a useful guest covering for the injured Jan Staechman who as a rule has not scored as freely as the Aussie on his visits to the South Wales track.

Quite remarkably the visitors only managed six race wins all afternoon compared to Newport's nine.

Watson had three easy victories but it was harder work for Mads Korneliussen who himself has only just returned from injury.

The other half of the Wasps Danish duo won two races including a fine move to round former Newport reserve Barrie Evans in heat 11.

Neil Collins again brought the home supporters to their feet with his never-say-die attitude making a lightening-start in heat three and then gaining his points the hard way with a drive around the outside of Stoke's Robbie Kessler in heat 14.

Collins' exploits levelled the scores after the visitors had taken the lead with a heat maximum after Watsons' injury but sadly the man from speedway's most famous family couldn't repeat his earlier form on a track on which it was getting harder to pass.

Mogridge took the flag for the Potters and Harrison kept Korneliussen at bay to make sure of the points .

Newport: Michael Coles 6 points 1 bonus from 4 rides. Kristian Lund 3-0-1 ,Mads Korneliussen 7-1-5 ,Neil Collins 12-1-5,Craig watson 9-0-4,Tony Atkin 7-1-6 Karlis Ezergailis 2-1-5 Stoke: Alan Mogridge 8-2-5, Paul Clews 7-0-4 ,Peter Carr 7-2-4 Robbie Kessler 7-2-4,Rusty Harrison 15-0-5, Rob Grant 1-0-3 ,Barrie Evans 3-1-4.