TEAM boss Trevor Swales has apologised to travelling fans – after Peterborough were thrashed at Lakeside.
The Readypower Panthers went down 66-26 at the Purfleet track as the Hammers cemented their place in the Elite League top four.
Swales said: “I just feel sorry for the fans that came and watched. It wasn’t a loss, it was a humiliation.
“Congratulations to Lakeside but we were exceptionally poor – but for two riders we didn’t take a point off the opposition all night.”
Only stand-in skipper Troy Batchelor and youngster Linus Sundström beat a home rider as Norbert Kosciuch, Kacper Gomolski, Richard Lawson and guest Magnus Karlsson gained their only points at the expense of a teammate.
It was Peterborough’s second biggest top-flight away defeat and put another dent in the club’s play-off hopes although Belle Vue’s shock win at Coventry has opened up the race again with the top four unlikely to be decided until the final matches of the regular season.
The defeat leaves Peterborough 11 points off a play-off spot although they still have eight matches in hand over Lakeside.
The Panthers’ hopes of ending their run of away defeats was severely hit by Thursday’s withdrawal of skipper Nicki Pedersen with a throat infection.
Peterborough were unable to sign up a suitable guest replacement and were forced to use rider replacement for the Danish Champion.
And that contributed only half a dozen points with stand-in captain Batchelor the only visiting rider to take a race.
He took the chequered flag in Heat 11 to prevent the Hammers completing a clean sweep of race winners and an abysmal performance from the second strings and reserves made it an impossible task.
The defeat was Peterborough’s heaviest since losing by 42 points at Eastbourne on August 30, 1997.
Swales added: “I think the sport has to look to see if there is a way to help a team that cannot bring in a high-scoring guest for a missing number one.
“We could only choose a rider from four teams and we tried a dozen different riders and none of them were available for a variety of reasons.
“I know some people will say we should have used a guest for Nicki instead of rider replacement but it was an impossibility – there was simply no-one of sufficient stature available.
“We spent hours on the phone but every avenue turned into a dead end.”
LAKESIDE 66: Lee Richardson 15, Robert Mear 13:2, Kauko Nieminen 12:1, Nicolai Klindt 10:2, Kim Nilsson 9:1, Ty Proctor 7:3, rider replacement for Piotr Swiderski.
PETERBOROUGH 26: Troy Batchelor 12, Linus Sundström 9:1, Norbert Kosciuch 2, Magnus Karlsson 1, Kacper Gomolski 1, Richard Lawson 1, rider replacement for Nicki Pedersen.