Swindon 47 Peterborough 49 

Knocked-off and pis!*ed off - MADS INTERVIEW SWTV

 
Capping a frustrating night in the home camp, it was the first time the Panthers had ever won at Blunsdon in 26 attempts in all competitions.

  
Peterborough took the initiative through a 4-2 in heat one and were to remain in front throughout in what turned out to be an incident-packed encounter.

 

In reserve Norbert Koœciuch, the Panthers possessed the meeting’s key rider as the Pole – making his Abbey Stadium debut – was to pile-up paid 14 points in exhilarating fashion.

 
And, when Mathieu Trésarrieu was ruled out of action after only one rider, the visitors had a more than capable replacement in Koœciuch, who went on to take a full seven outings.

 
Peterborough swept into a 22-8 lead after five races but, to use an old cliché, this really did become a meeting of two halves.

 

 
Swindon’s fight-back began when Leigh Adams posted a tactical ride success in heat six and continued when Grzegorz Zengota replicated his skipper’s achievement in heat nine.

 
A brilliant heat eleven saw Simon Stead and Chris Harris engage in a ding-dong tussle, with the home rider shading the narrowest of decisions by the width of a wafer.

 
As the Robins’ resurgence continued there was controversy in heat fourteen when Koœciuch and Mads Korneliussen clashed on the entry to the back straight.

 
The Dane subsequently limped around to complete the race, but was clearly upset as he tried in vain to alert the referee to the damage his machine had incurred.

 

 
Adams went on to tally paid 17 points at the head of Swindon’s score-chart, but the side’s excellent rearguard action regrettably amounted to too little too late, and they would rue giving away so many points in the early stages.

 
“We certainly weren’t at the races tonight and had all sorts of issues. Our gating was terrible from the outset which really allowed Peterborough to gain the momentum in the early stages," commented Swindon team manager Ronnie Russell.

 

“We tend to start off meetings poorly on the road and then pick up the pace in the latter stages. However, on this occasion we’ve got off to a poor start here at Blunsdon and I don’t expect that."

"The team enters into a very tough period next week and our performances in the meetings against Poole and Lakeisde will be crucial in determining our final league position.”

 

photos by Ian Lewis