PETERBOROUGH inflicted just Poole's third defeat of the season as they avenged their previous night's loss at Wimborne Road with a 49-44 Showground victory.
The Readypower Panthers showed great strength in depth to sink the Pirates, with every rider contributing to a win that boosts their play-off chances. The only negative for the home side was their inability to grab all three points on offer, but a Heat 15 5-1 from the majestic Darcy Ward and Chris Holder meant that the away team headed back to Dorset with a point.
Peterborough started brilliantly and raced in to an unlikely 10-point lead after the first four races, with Kenneth Bjerre, Michael Jepsen Jensen and Krzysztof Buczkowski all winning their opening heats.
Predictably, the Elite League Champions started to hit back, Ward winning a tactical ride in heat seven to bring the deficit down to nine, and then Ricky Kling and Sam Masters teamed up in the following heat to reduce it further by two.
The teams exchanged 4-2's and Peterborough went into Heat 13 with a five point cushion. That lead looked like it was going to be extended until Holder found the smallest of gaps to pass Buczkowski on the line, keeping his side in the contest.
The Panthers knew they had to deal the win in Heat 14 and they did just that with Linus Sundstrom and the brilliant Norbert Kosciuch coming in with a big 5-1.
Team manager Jan Staecmann had mixed feelings over the result. He said: "We were looking to get all three points and we were close, but we still got a win and that's the main thing. We threw everything at it but we just fell a bit short in the end.
"We had one to forget on Wednesday at Poole and I'm really pleased with the response we got tonight, we needed to get back on track quickly and we did that. We need to have priorities and pick up as many points as we can to climb the table and it was a good result in the end tonight."
PETERBOROUGH 49: Krzysztof Buczkowski 13 Norbert Kosciuch 11+4, Michael Jepsen Jensen 10, Kenneth Bjerre 7+1, Linus Sundstrom 6+1, Jason Bunyan 2+2, Olly Allen R/R.
POOLE 44: Darcy Ward 17, Chris Holder 12+1, Sam Masters 5, Krzysztof Kasprzak 5, Ricky Kling 4, Dennis Andersson 1+1, Ashley Birks 0.