A PATCHED-UP Oxford Cheetahs finished the season with a 57-33 defeat in the second leg of their Championship Knockout Cup final against Poole Pirates.

The score matched that from the home first leg, ensuring Pirates ran out comfortable 114-66 winners on aggregate.

Cheetahs were without injured quartet Jordan Jenkins, Luke Killeen, Scott Nicholls and Adam Roynon, while regular stand-in Jody Scott was also sidelined.

Cameron Heeps was also missing on paternity leave due to the expectant birth of his first child.

It left Cheetahs with just two of their regular riders, in the form of No 1 Sam Masters and the talented 17-year-old Ashton Boughen.

READ ALSO: Our player ratings after Oxford United held to draw by Derby County

Pirates though were able to track their full-strength septet, and the outcome never looked in doubt.

Cheetahs battled valiantly all night though and even produced three successive heat winners, through Jason Edwards, a late stand-in for Heeps, in Heat 9, and then Boughen and Masters in Heats 10 and 11 respectively.

Boughen completed a hat-trick of wins over Poole No 1 Richard Lawson at Wimborne Road this season.

Masters, who was skipper for the night top-scored for Cheetahs with 11+1, also won the concluding race in Heat 15 as the visitors matched their score from the first leg.

Masters said: “We came here to put on a show and have some fun riding our bikes and see what result we could get.

“No Poole rider scored a maximum, so it was good that we managed to beat them all over the night.

“Poole always put together such a strong team and we knew it would be tough. We wanted to come here and ruffle a few feathers and I think we did that.”