Lakeside Hammers 39,
Peterborough Panthers 51
Hammers saw their play-off aspirations nose dive on Monday as Peterborough produced a powerful display to run out comfortable victors in Essex and take all four Elite League points.
The home side fell behind as early as the third race and never recovered with the Panthers arguably faster from the starting gate and showing superior speed compared to the home side.
Despite missing the injured Jonas Davidsson, hopes were high within the home camp that they could do enough to book their place in the play-off semi finals. Sadly it was not to be as, while Peterborough pulled off their victory,, Coventry were claiming four league points up at Belle Vue to pull within just two points of the Hammers.
The home team only really had Lee Richardson (11 points), Peter Ljung (paid nine) and a superb showing from reserve Chris Neath (paid 14 points) to offer any real resistance to their rivals who were worthy winners.
The first few heats were mainly from the gate although Ljung did produce a good move to burst past Krzysztof Buczkowski in the opening race. Buczkowski featured again in heat five when he withstood some considerable pressure from Kauko Nieminen during the run in to the chequered flag.
Richardson and Ljung produced a superb 5-1 in the very next race, forcing their way past the fast trapping Troy Batchelor in successive laps to pull their side to within four points. Any hoped for momentum didn't follow, though, as Shields appeared to slow crossing the line in heat seven as a swooping Niels-Kristian Iversen stole third place on the line.
The disappointment quickly turned to jubilation as Ljung teamed up with Neath for a 5-1 in heat eight - but this was to prove the last heat advantage that the Hammers would register as the Panthers won six of the last seven races to assume control of the fixture.
Hammers: 1. Lee Richardson 11; 2. Peter Ljung 7+2; 3. Kauko Nieminen 7; 4. Rider Replacement; 5. Adam Shields 4+1; 6. Chris Neath 10+4; 7. Stuart Robson 0