PETERBOROUGH powered into serious play-off contention by dishing out a fourth East of England Showground beating of the season to Plymouth.
The ‘TC Harrison’ Panthers hit top gear for the second successive Tuesday to send the Devils off on their long journey back to Devon empty-handed – and that must be a familiar feeling for them after League Cup, KO Cup and Premier League defeats here already this term.
Just as in the previous week, it was largely routine stuff for the hosts who thwarted both Plymouth tactical rides in a meeting cut a couple of heats short due to the strict Showground curfew.
But Panthers had already done enough to claw their way to within three points of a play-off spot as they restricted the visitors to just three heat advantages (two of which arrived in those races containing double-points missions and three race wins (two of those came from guest number one Olly Allen).
Reserve Nicki Barrett returned to form to top the Panthers scorechart with paid 10 while fellow Dane Ulrich Ostergaard reeled off a hat-trick of heat wins in his three completed rides.
Ales Dryml, Lasse Bjerre and Adam Roynon also impressed while Max Dilger displayed improvement, but Richard Hall again cut a frustrated figure with only one scoring ride.
Panthers team boss Carl Johnson said: “It was pleasing to see Nicki back among the points after being a bit down during the first meeting against Scunthorpe.
“We gave him a few pointers and he really performed, as did the majority of the lads. "Richard is having a tough time currently. He is making a lot of changes to his bikes to try to make things better and I'm sure he 'll come through.
“We didn’t quite manage all six league points on the night, but picking up five has moved us much closer to the play-off places.
“We have a hell of a lot of racing ahead of us over the next few days and I’m sure the play-off picture will start to become clearer.”
Showground specialist Allen – in for the injured Ben Barker - was involved in a breath-taking start to the meeting as he lost out to Adam Roynon in a duel for heat one victory.
A pair of Barrett-inspired 5-1s soon had Plymouth well in arrears and Allen had no answer to Ostergaard when taking their first tactical outing in a heat five 3-5.
The Panthers advantage had swelled to 16 points by the time Rasmus Jensen became the first visiting rider to take the chequered flag, but Kyle Newman could only come home second when taking their second double-points mission in heat 12.
A 3-5 outcome in favour of Plymouth was not enough to prevent Panthers from wrapping up maximum points with plenty to spare.
SCORES
‘TC HARRISON’ PANTHERS: Nicki Barrett 9+1, Ulrich Ostergaard 9, Adam Roynon 8+1, Lasse Bjerre 8, Ales Dryml 8, Max Dilger 3+2, Richard Hall 2+1.
PLYMOUTH: Olly Allen (guest) 12, Rasmus Jensen 7, Kyle Newman 6+2, Josef Franc 5, Sam Simota 3+1, James Wright 1+1, Roland Benko 1.