The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
Swales is refusing to panic after poor week SPEEDWAY
PANTHERS bosses are refusing to panic despite a largely disappointing return to Elite League battle last week.
The city club collected just one consolation point when going down to away defeats on successive nights, following up a narrow 47-43 reverse at Birmingham with a 59-37 drubbing at Lakeside when only guest star Niels Kristian Iversen and young gun Michael Jepsen Jensen emerged with any credit.
Panthers are without a win since the opening day of their competitive season all the way back on Good Friday when they did the double over local rivals King’s Lynn and sit sixth in the early-season standings.
But joint team chief Trevor Swales insists his opinion of the club’s newlook line-up remains unchanged - and he has high hopes of a better showing when they continue a busy spell at Coventry on Friday.
Swales insisted: “There are certainly no alarm bells ringing. I still firmly believe we have the nucleus of AW 2 0 1 3 1 0 1 0 0 0 D 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 L 1 4 0 0 2 6 3 4 3 6
F 319 409 206 196 234 361 221 272 225 220
A 240 425 162 167 220 366 240 277 233 333 Pts 16 13 12 12 10 8 8 6 6 0 a very good side.
“It’s been a tough start to the season. We’ve only managed to get one home meeting in so far and have had unhelpfully long breaks in fixtures due to the weather.
“It was like starting all over again at Birmingham on Thursday and while you have to be reasonably pleased to pick up a point on the road, we left there with a tinge of disappointment that it wasn’t more.
“Lakeside was one of those meet- ings best consigned to the archives and left there. It was a bad night and some riders are having teething problems which is obviously down to the lack of meetings we’ve had.
“It is still early days but we are looking to kick on and take a step forward at Coventry. It’s a track where a number of our riders can perform well and we’re hoping to get back in the points at the very least.”
The trip to Coventry is followed by a welcome return to East of England Showground shale on Monday when Panthers host Birmingham.
They are the first two of six meetings scheduled for the remainder of May. Panthers’ trip to reigning champions Poole next Wednesday (May 23) has been selected for Sky TV coverage. MAY MEETINGS Fri 18 v Coventry (a) Mon 21 v Birmingham (h) Wed 23 v Poole (a) Thu 24 v Swindon (a) Mon 28 v Wolverhampton (a) Thu 31 v Poole (h)