Rob Lyon expects Kenneth Bjerre to keep reaching Speedway Grand Prix semi-finals after the Dane returned home from Leszno with eight points on Saturday.

Rob Lyon expects Kenneth Bjerre to keep reaching Speedway Grand Prix semi-finals after the Dane returned home from Leszno with eight points on Saturday.

The 27-year-old bounced back from his four-point nightmare in New Zealand's GP opener to reach the last eight with an improved display in Poland.

And even though he didn't reach the final, King's Lynn Stars team boss Lyon – acting as Bjerre's tactical advisor in this season's 12-round series – admits the Peterborough Panthers star took a step in the right direction.

Lyon said: 'We need to be looking at reaching semi-finals as a minimum. You can never expect anything in life, but we would be looking at anything less than a semi as a major disappointment. New Zealand was a disaster in lots of ways and we tried to put that right. We made some positive inroads on Saturday and it was closer to where we want to be.

'Making semi-finals isn't the problem for Kenneth, but making it count from there is what we need to work on. We need to move forward and establish ourselves so we can start picking gates and make sure we start getting some big points on the board.'

Bjerre, who finished seventh last season, moved up to 11th in the standings but remains 21 points behind championship leader Jarek Hampel.

Australian Chris Holder won the meeting after a thrilling final that saw him stun home favourites Hampel and Tomasz Gollob.

Lyon said: 'I was glad to see Chris Holder win it. It was nice to see a non-Pole win in Leszno for a change and he rode a cracking race.'

The next round is in Prague, Czech Republic, next Saturday.