Speedway preview: Poor team spirit a reason why the Panthers floppedBy Mark Plummer
Published on Wednesday 31 August 2011 15:25
TEAM manager Trevor Swales has admitted a poor team spirit is a reason behind Panthers’ disappointing season.
The city side are almost certain to fall short of the Elite League play-offs - even if they can produce a rousing finish to the regular season.
Panthers have four meetings remaining, starting with home and away dates against A47 derby rivals King’s Lynn. Swales’ men make the trip to the Norfolk Arena tonight (7.30pm start) before entertaining the Stars at the East of England Showground tomorrow.
They then complete their fixtures with two clashes against basement boys Swindon on the next two Mondays.
Realistically Panthers need to win them all and collect the lion’s share of the 14 points still available on offer to have a hope of sneaking into the top four, but even that might not be enough.
Swales admitted: “Individually the riders are all good enough, but there is no denying we have come up short as a team.
“There isn’t as much of a team spirit as we would like and it is certainly something we will have a look at going forward.
“But team spirit is something that is hard to instill when we are struggling for results as we have done on the road all season.
“I’m not going to say that’s the only reason why we find ourselves in this position, but it is certainly a factor.
“Another one is the fact that we ended up taking to the track with a team that was nothing like the one we originally intended to build. After what happened in the winter we had to put a team together from riders that were left.
“But we won’t give up on the play-offs until it is mathematically impossible for us to get there. We are not in a nice position though and you never want to have to rely on other teams slipping up
“Going to King’s Lynn and winning is obviously a huge ask, but it is a must if we are to keep our hopes of getting to the top four alive.
“Eastbourne and Coventry have proved this season that it is not impossible to get a result at Lynn and we have to follow suit.”
Panthers’ chances of doing that appear slim given they have lost all 12 away league meetings this season. The latest - a 49-41 defeat at weakened Coventry on Bank Holiday Monday night - was right up there with the most painful of them.
Swales added: “I really thought Monday was going to be the night that we finally got the job done on the road.
“We won at Coventry in the KO Cup earlier in the season and I really fancied us to do it again in the league, but it ended up being unbelievably disappointing. “Things looked to be going to plan early on but then it all went to pieces again. We’ve started so away meetings well and finished others well, but we just can’t seem to put 15 decent heats of speedway together on the road.
“Troy Batchelor has been a shining light for us but he has rarely had the support required for us to get results away.
“To be honest we have struggled at home at times, but have always got away with it. We also knew that home reuslts alone would not be good enough to get us into the play-offs.”
Richard Lawson returns at reserve for Panthers tonight after sitting out Monday’s clashes against Coventry. He did notch seven points for his Premier League club, Workington, on Monday though.
Lynn have two riders returning from injury tonight - former Peterborough man Oliver Allen and Czech reserve Filip Sitera.
Teams:
King’s Lynn: Kenneth Bjerre, Lasse Bjerre, Olly Allen, Mads Kornelliusen, Niels Kristian Iversen, Fillip Sitera, Kozza Smith.
Panthers: Nicki Pedersen, Krzysztof Buczkowski, Michael Jepsen Jensen, Linus Sundstrom, Troy Batchelor, Richard Lawson, Kacper Gomolski.
(From Peterborough Evening Telegraph
www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/sport/speedway/speedway_preview_poor_team_spirit_a_reason_why_the_panthers_flopped_1_3013754#.Tl5dzlw11UM.facebook)
