PETERBOROUGH’S hopes of ending the season with any silverware took a major dent as Poole walked away from the Showground with a seven-point first-leg victory in the Elite League Knockout Cup
The Panthers were hoping to build a healthy lead to take to Wimborne Road on Wednesday (13th) but it was Elite League runners-up Poole who came away with the spoils, after an inspired showing from their two reserves.
Leon Madsen and Jason Doyle registered paid-26 between them, whereas the Panthers bottom two managed paid-seven.
An opening heat 4-2 for Kenneth Bjerre and Krzysztof Buczkowski gave the home side a good start, but that was the only time the Panthers were in the lead.Madsen and Doyle blasted round the fast-starting Dakota North in Heat two, before Madsen again showed his liking for the slick track conditions when he raced to a 5-1 with countryman Bjarne Pedersen.
It was his reserve partner Doyle’s time to shine in Heat four, as he led for all four laps ahead of Troy Batchelor and Norbert Kosciuch, who did well to hold off Davey Watt.
As often seems the case with the Panthers, a succession of 3-3’s followed, where Rory Schlein, Bjerre and Batchelor all picked up the chequered flag ahead of the opposition.
Polish duo Buczkowski and Kosciuch sparked the home fans into life when they rode superbly for a Heat eight 5-1, after Darcy Ward was disqualified for falling off, which he was non-too pleased about judging by the strop he threw on the track.
Another Panthers win followed, and at the halfway stage the Pirates were only up by two points, and the home team had registered five consecutive heat wins.
The next four heats were to lose the meeting for the Panthers.
Poole gained 14 points with two wins apiece for Chris Holder and Leon Madsen, despite the best efforts of Kenneth Bjerre in Heat 13, where he was donning the black-and-white helmet colour.
Niels-Kristian Iversen rode a captain’s race in the penultimate heat, racing to six big points to give the home side a 7-2 heat advantage.
With the prospect of going through to the final looking slim, it was down to the Danish duo of Bjerre and Iversen to restore some pride for the Showground side and they did just that, romping to an excellent 5-1 to give the tiniest glimmer of hope going into Wednesday’s second-leg.
It was too little too late for the home side, however, and team manager Trevor Swales was clearly disappointed.
He said: “We knew Poole would come down and want to prove a point after the league defeat but it is no excuse for us. We were simply too inconsistent and we ran too many last places.
“We had riders who started bad and did well at the end, and riders who started good and went bad at the end, it was too inconsistent. There are no complaints about the track, it was in excellent shape tonight, it was just us.
“As a team manager it is so frustrating to see. They were just gating so much better than us, and when you get a side come here and get paid 26 from their reserves, you’re in trouble. I can’t fault the effort from our two reserves, Dak had two meetings yesterday and didn’t get home until 3 o’clock Monday morning, he then had to clean his bikes and pack up to come here. I can’t fault him at all, it’s just a year too early. He was riding against two of the best reserves in the league, so it was tough.”
He added: “It’s going to be a massive hill to climb on Wednesday, but we can do it. Coventry went and won by 10 down there so they’ve shown that it is more than possible. We just need to get ourselves a good start and hope that they have a few problems. It’s going to be hard, but it’s do-able.”