PETERRBOROUGH boss Trevor Swales has called for his side to stop giving away points early in the meeting, or face missing out on the Elite League play-offs.
The Readypower Panthers are now seventh in the Elite League table, eight points off a play-off spot with eight meetings in hand over Lakeside, whose victory moved them into fourth.
The Panthers failed to recover from a dreadful start at the Arena Essex Raceway, where they conceded four 5-1's in the first four heats, and that led to a third consecutive away defeat.
The 16-point deficit was cut by two in the ensuing 11 heats, but that was down to six-point tactical rides from guest Peter Karlsson and Troy Batchelor, who notched 13 and 12 respectively.
The Polish duo of Norbert Kosciuch and Krzysztof Buczkowski both showed an improvement from Monday's performance at Belle Vue, and Linus Sundström recovered from a bad start to end his evening with a paid race win.
The meeting was won at reserve for the Hammers, with new boy Kim Nilsson top scoring with paid17, and Swales knows that that's where the meeting got away from his side.
He said: "If you look at their reserves, they got paid-20 between them and we got paid 4. It's by no means a criticism of our lads because it was always going to be tough for them against a very strong Lakeside pairing. The difference in the points was 14, and that's what we lost by."
Swales also lamented a slow start from his side, adding: "We struggled badly with our set-ups early on, even PK, and it cost us. We have to stop giving away points at the beginning of meetings because away from home it's very difficult to come back.
"It was good to see the Polish boys get stuck in a bit towards the end, they proved that they can do it even on a track that doesn't suit them. We did show some spirit, but it came too late. It was very tough."
It took until Heat 5 for Peterborough to beat a Lakeside rider, guest Karlsson, deputising for absent Nicki Pedersen on Grand Prix duty in Italy, claiming six points from the first of three successive race wins.
Stand-in skipper Troy Batchelor, who had to pull out of his first race when his steel shoe came off on the first bend, also claimed a double points win in Heat 11 but they were the only Panthers to cross the line first.
LAKESIDE 55: Kim Nilsson 14:2, Lee Richardson 12:1, Stuart Robson 10:1, Peter Ljung 9:1, Joonas Kylmåkorpi 7:2, Robert Mear 3, rider replacement for Adam Shields.
PETERBOROUGH 41: Peter Karlsson 13, Troy Batchelor 12, Krzysztof Buczkowski 6, Linus Sundström 4:1, Norbert Kosciuch 3:1, Tyson Nelson 2:1, Richard Lawson 1.