PETERBOROUGH relinquished their long proud unbeaten home record on Thursday night with a twelve-point loss against Poole.
The Readypower Panthers hadn’t tasted league defeat at the Showground since September 2010, but the run finally came to an end against an in form Pirates side.
The Dorset club registered their thirteenth consecutive victory in all competitions since the start of this season, and with Panthers producing just four race winners on the night, it proved to be a defining factor.
The visitors led from Heat 1 onwards, although Jan Staechmann’s men did threaten to get back into the contest at times.
Heat 2 looked to be heading for a home 5-1 when Richard Lawson and Jesper B Monberg comfortably led, only for Monberg to suffer a puncture and the race was shared.
Poole then raced away to open up an early 16-8 lead after four races, but Panthers got themselves back in it with a 4-2 in Heat 5 - which included Michael Jepsen Jensen defeating Chris Holder.
That was immediately followed by Kenneth and Lasse Bjerre coming from behind to record maximum points against Ty Proctor and Ludvig Lindgren in Heat 6 – and the big comeback looked to be on for a moment.
Pirates immediately responded with a 5-1 of their own in Heat 7 as maximum man Darcy Ward was untroubled in front and Proctor passed both Richard Lawson and Olly Allen.
Monberg and Lasse Bjerre gave the home fans further hope when they raced to a maximum over Kyle Howarth and Ricky Kling in Heat 8 and many expected Heat 9 to go the same way with Linus Sundstrom and Michael Jepsen Jensen in the race. But Kling’s unexpected tapes-to-flag victory over the duo left the Panthers still trailing by two-points (28-26).
And there was further disappointment with first of all Ward and Proctor inflicting a 5-1 on Kenneth Bjerre in Heat 10, and then Holder and Kling put the visitors further ahead with a 4-2 in Heat 11.
The deficit was still eight-points going into the penultimate race – meaning Panthers needed two 5-1s to draw – but any hope of salvaging anything were gone as match-winner Proctor was quick from the tapes again to defeat Monberg and Sundstrom.
PETERBOROUGH 39: Jesper B Monberg 8+1, Michael Jepsen Jensen 7+1, Kenneth Bjerre 7, Lasse Bjerre 6+2, Linus Sundstrom 4+1, Richard Lawson 4, Olly Allen 3+1.
POOLE 51: Darcy Ward 18, Chris Holder 13+1, Ty Proctor 10+3, Ricky Kling 5, Kyle Howarth 3+1, Ludvig Lindgren 2, Adrian Miedzinski R/R.