THE 2011 Elite League season just didn’t work out for Simon Stead.

Handed the captaincy in his third year in Robins kevlars, the Yorkshireman was to endure a nightmare campaign in which an early-season rib injury kept him out for months.

Seeing that the Robins were struggling in the Elite League, Stead returned before the injury fully healed, a gamble that didn’t pay off.

The skipper did not start getting near his true potential until late in the season and Swindon’s play-off hopes had already evaporated by that stage.

“Last year was a disappointment for me personally and for the team,” said Stead.

“I got hurt at the wrong time and there were lots of changes that the FIM brought in, in terms of what we could and couldn’t use on the bikes, which changed the characteristics of how they worked.

“Testing was going well prior to me getting hurt, but unfortunately when I did I gave everyone else two months headstart and with the amount I was riding, it wasn’t something I was able to recover from easily.

“I thought towards the back end of last year I started going a little bit better, but it obviously wasn’t the season that we’d all hoped for.”

Off the back of the 2011 campaign, the 29-year-old’s future was in considerable doubt, but Nicolai Klindt’s switch back to parent club Wolverhampton paved the way for Stead to continue at Blunsdon for a fourth successive year.

But the Great Britain international admitted it had not always looked like he would return to Wiltshire.

“I had a meeting with Gary (Patchett, Robins co-owner) and he said they had done some teams on paper, and I was in some of them but not all of them,” continued Stead. “From being signed up from the dinner and dance the year before, it was difficult and I had to consider what I wanted to do.

“I didn’t have that option to double up, so it was either, do I go full-time Elite League with someone else, do I go Premier League or do I not ride at all?

“But shortly after I had a great chat with Rosco (team boss Alun Rossiter) and he realised how passionate I was for Swindon and how much of a disappointment last season was, and I think he wanted to give me the chance to make it up to the fans.

“Off the back of that we got talking again and the deal was done shortly after, and I’m delighted to be back.

Stead has been rewarded for his loyalty to Swindon with a testimonial meeting in August, but boss Alun Rossiter has elected to give the captain’s role to Hans Andersen.

While Stead would much rather have been named skipper for the second year in a row, he accepts the decision of his team manager.

“We had a long chat about it and his reasons for relieving me of it were genuine in wanting me to perform better,” said Stead. “That in itself told me it was probably a wise decision, I wasn’t going to let it go easily but I understood where he was coming from.

“If I was going to give it to someone else, Hans is the right man.”