PETERBOROUGH travel back to Rye House on Sunday for their season-defining Championship play-off semi-final second leg (6pm).
The T.Balfe Construction Panthers trail Lakeside by two points from the initial encounter at the East of England Arena a fortnight ago in what has become a severely weather-affected tie.
Awaiting the aggregate winners in the Final are Workington, who prevailed in a dramatic encounter with Glasgow last weekend with the Comets coming out on top by a single point after 30 races.
Panthers raced the first leg of their semi-final missing three of their regular riders, and that has now become four with Michael Palm Toft on the sidelines after his crash in the Premiership Grand Final with King’s Lynn.
Thomas Jorgensen, Tero Aarnio and Carl Wilkinson are the men recruited to make guest appearances, with rider-replacement in operation for Bradley Wilson-Dean.
The Hammers are scheduled to be at full strength, but they are set to go into the meeting at the conclusion of a remarkably hectic weekend.
They face Workington at Hoddesdon on Friday in the first leg of the Championship Shield Final before making the long trip north to Derwent Park on Saturday to complete a double-header against the Comets in both the Shield and a regular league encounter.
Peterborough promoter Ged Rathbone said: “We’re up against it obviously with all the injuries, but we can assure everyone that we’ll go there with the right attitude.
“We know we can ride that circuit, and I’m sure Lakeside’s schedule for the weekend is not one they would have wanted in ideal circumstances.
“It all comes down to this meeting and almost certainly a win will do. A 47-43 win will take us into the Final and then it would be another 30 heats where absolutely anything can happen.
“We’ve already seen how cruel the sport can be at times, look at King’s Lynn in the Premiership – they were the best team all season but ended up with nothing to show for it.
“At the moment that team in the Championship could be us, having finished top of the table but then been hit by injuries at the worst time, but everyone riding for us on Sunday will give it their all.”
LAKESIDE: Richard Lawson, Zach Wajtknecht, Adam Ellis, Kyle Newman, Nick Morris, Ben Morley, Alfie Bowtell. PETERBOROUGH: Thomas Jorgensen, Emil Grondal, Bradley Wilson-Dean R/R, Tero Aarnio, Ulrich Ostergaard, Carl Wilkinson, Simon Lambert.