PETERBOROUGH were unable to end their away-day drought on the South coast as they went down to a 54-36 defeat at Eastbourne.
The eventual margin was tough on the Readypower Panthers, especially as they had worried their hosts by racing into an early lead, but the Eagles were much stronger in the second half of the meeting.
And co-promoter Trevor Swales admits the current position of being without two of the club’s top three riders, Linus Sundstrom and Kenni Larsen due to injury – is not one the Panthers can carry for any length of time.
Despite a first-race last place for skipper Kenneth Bjerre, Panthers settled well at Arlington with Ryan Fisher and guest Rory Schlein winning their first two rides, Schlein combining with Nicolai Klindt for a 5-1 in Heat 4 which took them into a 14-10 lead.
It took the Eagles until Heat 7 to level the scores when Fisher’s winning run came to an end as he conceded a 5-1, and although Bjerre won his rider-replacement outing to briefly keep the scores level Heat 9 saw Schlein upstaged for the first time as Simon Gustafsson and Cameron Woodward raced clear for the home side.
With four heats to go the Eastbourne lead was only six points giving Panthers a chance of salvaging at least a point, but the Eagles’ gating over the closing stages was far sharper and they finished with a succession of heat advantages.
And initially-promising evenings for Schlein and Fisher both ended with falls in Heats 13 and 15 respectively as the Eagles took the final four races by a margin of 18-6, with Woodward dropping just one point from six rides.
Swales said: “I’m disappointed we didn’t get anything out of it because I do actually think we deserved something. Until Heat 9 we were level, but the 5-1 there and the 4-2 in the next race turned the meeting.
“Eastbourne weren’t as much better than us as the score indicates, but we can’t alter what happened and we have to move on to the next meeting.
“We should take a few positives away from it: Kenneth had a better away meeting than he had been having earlier in the season, I thought Fish was quite good and Rory proved to be a good guest.
“We got seven points from rider-replacement which I would suggest wasn’t much different to what Linus would have got on the form he’d been on recently, and it was hard for Patrick Hougaard in the main body of the team, who is almost starting his season again after his injury.
“Whether we can continue running rider-replacement and a guest I very much doubt, and we’ve got to think about that over the weekend.”
EASTBOURNE 54: Cameron Woodward 14+3, Bjarne Pedersen 12+1, Simon Gustafsson 11+1, Timo Lahti 11, Kim Nilsson 5+1, Denis Gizatullin 1+1, Lukas Dryml r/r. PETERBOROUGH 36: Kenneth Bjerre 10, Ryan Fisher 10, Rory Schlein 8+1, Nicolai Klindt 4+1, Dakota North 2+1, Patrick Hougaard 2, Kenni Larsen r/r.