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Panthers: Time to deliver a quality display
PANTHERS team boss Trevor Swales could not hide his disappointment at being thrown into a thrilling Elite League play-off battle.
Swales reckons his city racers should already be assured of a top-four finish and a tilt at honours.
Panthers were twice found badly wanting when crashing to home defeats at the hands of Eastbourne and Coventry last week, either side of a seriously unlucky loss at runaway table-toppers Poole.
That set of results left their play-off qualification in the balance and they are now one of three teams (along with tonight’s opponents Lakeside and Coventry) chasing two spots inside the top four in a dream scenario for neutral fans.
But for Panthers it is far from that. What could have been a pressure-free fixture tonight at the Arena Essex Raceway against the third-placed Hammers is instead likely to be their most intense outing of the entire campaign under the Sky TV spotlight.
And Swales (below) has only one thing on his mind – victory. He said: “I guess it couldn’t have been scripted any better, but we are very disappointed to find ourselves in this situation.
“We have made life very hard for ourselves by slipping up twice on our home shale in the past week. We know we could – and probably should – have been home and hosed by now in terms of qualifying for the play-offs.
“We are not just paying the price for a couple of bad home results though - we are also in this position due to being nowhere near good enough on the road all season long.
“We have only picked up eight points on our travels and we have now dropped that many at home if you count two defeats and two lost points against Poole.
“We know there are plenty of permutations going into this final week of the regular season, but the only one we are concentrating on is going to Lakeside and winning. Do that and we are virtually certain to be there.
“We cannot concern ourselves with what is going on elsewhere. We have to take care of our own business and that means standing up to be counted tonight.
“The pressure will be on and the stakes are high, but bottling it is not an option. It is one of those nights where we simply have to deliver the goods.
“Pressure affects different riders in different ways. Some of our boys thrive on it, some don’t and others don’t even recognise it exists.
“My job is to ensure that every single one of them rides at their best tonight.”
And Swales leapt to the defence of reserve riders Mat Tresarrieu and Norbert Kosciuch who have both been out of sorts in the past week.
The bottom-end duo managed just 16 points between them in the club’s three meetings last week. The weakness at reserve was particularly evident against Coventry whose duo of Lewis Bridger and Przemyslaw Pawlicki claimed 18 on Friday.
Swales added: “We know the two lads haven’t been going too well in the past few meetings, but it is all too easy to say that we lost out at reserve.
“I am not in the habit of singling out individuals. We win together and lose together.
“We fully expected that to happen against Coventry but I felt we could and should have gained those points back in other areas.
“I would hope both boys can pick up a few points around Lakeside. Norbert doesn’t mind the small tracks and if they can both score to their averages, we will be there or thereabouts come the end of the night.
Lakeside will utilise rider replacement for Swedish rider Jonas Davidsson who is out for the rest of the season with a hand injury suffered in yesterday’s Elite League Best Pairs Championship.
Teams:
Lakeside: Lee Richardson, Peter Ljung, Kauko Nieminen, replacement for Jonas Davidsson, Adam Shields, Chris Neath, Stuart Robson. Panthers: Kenneth Bjerre, Krzysztof Buczkowski, Rory Schlein, Niels Kristian Iversen, Troy Batchelor, Mat Tresarrieu, Norbert Kosciuch
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Sunday 12 February 2012
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