PETERBOROUGH were left with just five riders standing at the end of the night whilst being sent crashing to a 57-35 Elite League defeat at Wolverhampton.
Already missing Olly Allen courtesy to a rib injury last week and having to operate rider-replacement in his absence, they then lost the services of heat-leader Linus Sundstrom after his opening ride.
The Swede was hit by Wolves star Robert Miskowiak when the Pole locked-up in Heat 3 and had to be attended to on the track by the medics for several minutes. He was eventually able to compete in the re-run with Miskowiak excluded, but feeling winded and badly shaken withdrew from the rest of the meeting before he could take his second ride.
The Readypower Panthers only trailed 10-8 at that point and a full-strength team may have still taken something from the match, but Wolves took full-advantage of the misfortune to eventually open up a 29-19 lead after eight races.
Michael Jepsen Jensen, returning to action from a virus, was then nominated for double-points in Heat 9, but the young Dane could only finish second behind Ty Proctor and the race was shared 4-4.
Jepsen Jensen and Richard Lawson then got another share of the points when finishing behind paid-maximum man Freddie Lindgren in heat 10, and the points were shared again when skipper Kenneth Bjerre managed to inflict the only defeat of the night on Wolves guest Peter Karlsson when nudging the Swede aside in Heat 11.
But that was as good and as close as it got with the Midlanders finishing strongly with three 5-1s in the final four races.
A disappointed Panthers co-boss Jan Staechmann spoke after the match. He said: “It was disappointing as I felt we had a chance of getting something here tonight, but sometimes it just doesn’t happen for you and there is little you can do about it.
“It was a big blow to lose Linus like that and with already being without Olly, we were struggling at times to put two riders in each race for the rest of the evening. To have two of your top three average riders missing in an away match is hard to overcome, but we now have to put this behind us and bounce back with a good one at home to Poole on Thursday.
“Thankfully Linus is okay though and was just winded and a bit shaken up - he was also feeling a bit dehydrated. I spoke to him again at the end of the meeting and he’ll be okay to ride in the rest of his meetings this week.
“Although we lost tonight there were still some positive things to take from it, with Michael again in good form and having some good battles with their two Swedes (Lindgren and Karlsson). Also a special mention must go to Richard (Lawson) who continued to work hard and battle away all night.”
WOLVERHAMPTON 57: Ricky Wells 18+2, Freddie Lindgren 12+3, Peter Karlsson 11, Ty Proctor 9+2, Robert Miskowiak 7, Lukasz Sowka 0, Pontus Aspegren R/R.
PETERBOROUGH 35: Michael Jepsen Jensen 14, Kenneth Bjerre 8+1, Richard Lawson 4+2, Jesper B Monberg 4+2, Lasse Bjerre 1, Linus Sundstrom 1, Olly Allen R/R.