The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
Panthers skipper is hoping for a change of fortunes at Coventry
PANTHERS captain Kenneth Bjerre hopes to find the cure for a crisis of confidence tonight.
The Danish star admits he has made silly mistakes and feels he has been plagued by bad luck during a difficult few days in four countries.
Bjerre endured his worst-ever Grand Prix performance in the Czech Republic last Saturday, failed to score in Poland the following day, had another off-night in Sweden on Tuesday and managed just four points in the first leg of the Danish Final on Wednesday.
But he hopes a return to these shores for Panthers’ trip to Coventry in the Elite League at Brandon tonight (8pm start) will provide the spark his season needs.
Bjerre said: “Things just seem to be going against me right now, but you just have to get on with it.
“I didn’t have a good Grand Prix, I had a chain snap when I was leading a race in Sweden and I got excluded in a first corner in the Danish Final. I’m not getting much luck at all.
“The good thing is that we’ve sorted out the issues with the bikes we had earlier in the season and the engines are working well so now it is just about getting my confidence back to where it should be.
“A few race wins for Panthers tonight will certainly help. I had a pretty decent time at Birmingham last Thursday when I just missed the start in my first race, so hopefully I’ll be able to get another good number of points at Coventry.
“I’ve always enjoyed going there and hopefully we can start the meeting a bit better than we have been doing and have a good night.”
Like Bjerre, Panthers could also do with an upturn in fortunes after suffering away defeats on successive nights at Birmingham and Lakeside last week. They are without a win since the opening day of their Elite League season back on Good Friday.
Bjerre is certainly not the only member of their squad with a soft spot for Coventry. Winter signing Olly Allen spent four seasons in Bees colours while Swedish star Linus Sundstrom showed his liking for the Midlands venue by winning it’s opening night Brandonapolis indi- vidual meeting.
Sundstrom admitted publicly that he was disappointed with his displays in Panthers colours last week, but he was back on song in his homeland on Wednesday night when winning a qualifier for the Swedish Final.
Panthers are without three riders tonight. They operate rider replacement due to both doubling-up second strings, Rene Bach and Lasse Bjerre, being unavailable.
They’re both riding in the Premier League for Workington and Leicester respectively. Doubling-up reserve Richard Lawson is also on Workington duty which means Kyle Newman makes his competitive Panthers debut. Panthers: 1 Kenneth Bjerre, 2 rider replacement for Rene Bach/lasse Bjerre, 3 Olly Allen, 4 Michael Jepsen Jensen, 5 Linus Sundstrom, 6 Kyle Newman, 7 Jesper B. Monberg.