Best performance saved until last

Team boss Carl Johnson admitted Panthers’ fine end to the SGB Championship season was too little, too late.

The city club reeled off a seventh successive win when closing the league campaign with victory against Edinburgh last Friday night.

They saved arguably their best performance of an impressive run until last when in control throughout against a Monarchs side who succeeded where they failed in terms of reaching the playoffs.

“We have been picking up results home and away and the riders have done everything we asked of them,” said Johnson.

“This run has obviously come too late in terms of trying to reach the play-offs, but we have showed everyone how good we can be.

“It’s just a shame we lost so many riders during the middle part of the season when our form dipped.”

Back-to-back 5-1s in the opening two races – both starring reserve Simon Lambert – laid the foundations for a victory put beyond any doubt when the same man followed in skipper Ulrich Ostergaard for a full house in heat 14.

Lambert and Ostergaard, who signed off by winning the finale for good measure, were two of the four double-figures scorers for the city side.

Chris Harris also achieved that feat after squeezing his way into third place in the closing race by getting round Edinburgh man Erik Riss.

That was a tiny slice of revenge after the visiting German rider ended the unbeaten records of Harris and Jack Holder with the move of the meeting to hit the front in heat 13.

The home pair had both reeled off hat-tricks of wins in the opening three outings, a run matched by their captain, Ostergaard, in his last three appearances on track during a night when Panthers claimed advantages in eight of the 15 races.