Poole will be without their captain Zach Cook for the trip to the Coliseum due to a Polish league fixture, and they will need a good start in Devon if they are to keep their south coast rivals at bay.
With Cook out, Kyle Newman will move to number three and Lewis Kerr will ride at number five, with rider replacement operating for the number two berth.
A strong Plymouth side stayed well in the contest in Dorset, with neither side able to record a 5-1 heat maximum across the meeting on Friday evening.
The hosts on Saturday will also be without number two Tobias Thomsen, after a nasty heat one crash with Richard Lawson saw the Danish former Pirate taken to hospital.
Zach Cook went to victory in heat four. (Image: Richard Crease)
While it will be a tough task in Devon, a victory would be something of an early season statement for the Pirates and will help towards their BSN Series qualification with the aggregate point, as they look to reclaim the title.
Looking ahead to the trip to Plymouth after Friday’s meeting, promoter Danny Ford told the Daily Echo: “I’m not entirely sure how we’re going to manage tomorrow, it’s really tough.
“Plymouth’s never really a great track for us. We’ve had some good results there, but I think for the most part we’ve struggled there.
“So to go there without Zach, we’re going to need something extra special and the guys are going to need to dig really deep.
“We have the ability, we have quality all throughout the team, but we’ve just got to be on it from the off. Tonight we weren’t on it from the off and I think we left points on the table. Tomorrow we can’t.”
Poole Pirates: 1, Richard Lawson; 2, R/R; 3, Kyle Newman; 4, Fraser Bowes; 5, Lewis Kerr; 6, Will Cairns; 7, Cooper Rushen.
Plymouth Gladiators: 1, Danny King; 2, TBC; 3, Joe Thompson; 4, Ben Barker (c); 5, Scott Nicholls; 6, Daniel Klima; 7, Tom Spencer.