PETERBOROUGH suffered their first home defeat of the season at the hands of a determined Eastbourne side, denting their play-offs hopes massively.
The Eagles gave their Peterborough counterparts a lesson in gating at the Showground, with brilliant performances from Joonas Kylmåkorpi and reserve Simon Gustafsson inspiring the Sussex side to a famous victor
The meeting started well for the Panthers, with two 4-2 heat advantages in the first two races.
Niels-Kristian Iversen raced to another win for the home side in the second running of heat three, after Rory Schlein came to grief challenging Ricky Kling for second place on lap two.
The Eagles first heat advantage came in heat four, when the excellent Joonas Kylmakorpi and Panthers old-boy Lukas Dryml showed why they are renowned track-specialists at Alwalton with a 4-2 over Norbert Kosciuch and Troy Batchelor.
Three successive shared heats ensued, before Tomasz Jedrzejak raced to his first and only win of the evening, beating fellow Pole Krzysztof Buczkowski. Simon Gustafsson held off Norbert Kosciuch for third, drawing Eastbourne level for the first time.
It was again Gustafsson that was involved in a heat advantage for the visitors, this time teaming up with Kylmakorpi a second successive 4-2, this time over Iversen and Schlein.
The Panthers hit back immediately, with Buczkowski blasting up the inside of Cameron Woodward and Kenneth Bjerre beating Ricky Kling, meaning the scores were once again level.
Troy Batchelor was the first man to lower Joonas Kylmakorpi’s colours, riding a fantastic first turn to race to a vital win. Mathieu Tresarrieu also rode an excellent race to beat Jedrzejak, with the Panthers stealing a two-point lead.
The impressive Gustafsson raced to a tapes-to-flag victory in heat 12, with Panthers asset Lukas Dryml joining him at the front for an important 5-1.
Heat 13 proved fruitful for the Panthers, with Kenneth Bjerre holding off Joonas Kylmakorpi and Batchelor heading home Jedrzejak, meaning that the scores were level with two heats remaining.
Heat 14 was the deciding heat. The Eagles pairing of Cameron Woodward and Simon Gustafsson made lightning starts and Iversen and Tresarrieu failed to make up any ground on their opponents, meaning only a disaster for the South-coast side could see them leave East Anglia without atleast a draw.
Kenneth Bjerre and Troy Batchelor were the Panthers riders trusted with the responsibility of salvaging something from the meeting, with Kylmåkorpi and Gustafsson representing Eastbourne. Kenneth Bjerre lead from the tapes, but Batchelor couldn’t muscle past either Eagles rider and they held out for a famous four-point win.
Assistant Team Manager Wayne Swales, who was in charge for the evening, was dismayed by such a poor performance: “It was an appalling meeting for us. Words fail me really, we were so poor. We didn’t ride as a team tonight.”
He added: “If you look at the scorechart, apart from Kenneth and Krzysztof, no-one scored well. Rory had his slowest meeting yet here, but he’s been excellent for us all season so you can’t complain. It wasn’t down to individuals tonight, as a team we were awful. We simply weren’t good enough from 1-7.”
“I’m hoping that this was the kick up the backside that we need, but it could prove very costly. I’m not saying that the wheels have fallen off, but they’ve certainly gone a bit loose.”
