PETERBOROUGH chief Ged Rathbone issued a public apology in the wake of another poor performance.
The ‘T Balfe Construction’ Panthers suffered a second successive Premier League defeat when going down 62-30 at Glasgow this afternoon.
They could only provide two race victories in Scotland – both of which came from captain Ulrich Ostergaard – and didn’t manage a single heat advantage.
They were also left with an injury concern over Nicklas Porsing, who pulled out of heat 13 with a knee problem.
Promoter Rathbone, who also stood in as team manager at Ashfield Stadium, said: “First and foremost I must apologise to the travelling fans. We were awful and we are not going to try to hide from it.
“This sort of performance is not acceptable from professional sportsmen and a lot of riders need to be taking a serious look at themselves.
“We built this team as one we felt was capable of challenging for honours and it is still the team we want.
“But there is no denying we have got to eliminate a hell of a lot of problems, and that needs to happen quickly. If our form doesn’t turn round, we will have to make changes.”
Peterborough endured a nightmare start as they had fallers in the opening two races when on the receiving end of 5-1s.
Ostergaard hit the deck in heat one to earn an exclusion and a similar fate awaited Simon Lambert in the next contest – the first disappointment for him on an afternoon where he failed to score.
He wasn’t the only Panthers man not to trouble the scorers as Emil Grondal also had a dayto forget. It started with a chain failure in heat three when they again provided just one finisher.
Both of their riders finally managed to cross the finish line in heat four as Porsing and Tom Perry packed the minor places, but it provided only a brief respite.
In heat five, the first of two Michael Palm Toft retirements allowed the hosts to start a run of three successive advantages which increased their cushion to 18 points.
Rathbone responded by deploying Palm Toft on a tactical ride in heat eight, but he had to settle for second place with a 4-4 return all but ending Panthers’ hopes of clawing their way back into contention.
They found themselves on the receiving end of back-to-back 5-1s before captain Ostergaard finally provided a source of cheer with their first victory of the afternoon in heat 11.
Ostergaard also took success in heat 13 but that came at a cost as partner Porsing was forced to retire and had to be helped into the track ambulance after jarring his knee. He is due to see a specialist in his native Denmark tomorrow for a more detailed diagnosis on possible ligament damage.
That wasn't the end of Panthers' torment as two further advantages followed for the hosts in the final two races to wrap up their heaviest defeat since August, 2014.
They face another tough trip on Friday when travelling to Plymouth.
SCORES
GLASGOW: Richard Lawson 14, Richie Worrall 12 (max), Ben Barker 10+3, Aaron Summers 9+1, Nike Lunna 8+2, Fernando Garcia 6+1, Danny Ayres 3+1.
PETERBOROUGH ‘T BALFE CONSTRUCTION’ PANTHERS: Ulrich Ostergaard 8, Nikolaj B Jakobsen 7, Tom Perry 5+2, Michael Palm Toft 5, Nicklas Porsing 5, Emil Grondal 0, Simon Lambert 0.
