It is only 18 months since the city club were at the pinnacle of British speedway but, based on the evidence of the opening two weeks of the season, they won't be returning to those dizzy heights anytime soon.

While it would be dangerous to write off the chances of a team supposedly oozing potential after just five competitive matches, even those wearing the most rose-tinted sets of spectacles have to be seriously worried.

Panthers have crashed out of the Craven Shield and now find themselves propping up the Elite League after losing this first top-flight fixture of the new season.

But it is the manner of the defeats that really hurt. They were crushed by 30 points at Ipswich on Thursday, went down by 23 at Lakeside on Friday and then completed their hat-trick of heavy clobberings with this 24-point setback in Sussex on a rain-soaked Saturday night.

For the second time in three days captain Hans Andersen was responsible for almost half the club's total points as he was the only Panther to win a heat at Eastbourne.

A cocktail of some truly atrocious gating and a number of highly disappointing individual displays left Panthers with no hope of arresting their slump.

As a result, this contest was virtually over after just eight heats.

Andersen spared Panthers total annihilation with his 16-point salvage mission, but the lack of support for the skipper meant he was always on a hiding to nothing.

Kenneth Bjerre was the fastest man around Eastbourne in 2007 but he could only manage a tame nine-point haul from five largely disappointing rides, while third heat-leader Danny King has thrown away no fewer than seven points in the past two meetings by crashing when in first or second place.

Down at reserve Claus Vissing acquitted himself decently on his first-ever visit to tricky Eastbourne while Henrik Moller did at least manage a couple of points in an all-action ninth heat.

But the two second strings were the biggest disappointments of all.

It would have been impossible to guess that Morten Risager spent half of last season racing for the Eagles on the basis of the single point he managed in four rides.

And you can't help wondering what all the fuss was about when the club captured Sam Simota during the winter. The Czech was expected to be a bargain capture on a falsesly low average - but that's not quite how things have panned out.

Team manager Trevor Swales pulled no punches in his assessment of the club's current plight.

Swales said: "Things have got to change and they are going to - riders have got to stand up and be counted.

"Everyone else seems to be gating well and the majority of our lads are not.

"Put quite simply we have one rider that is doing anywhere near what he should be and the rest are riding pants.

"This is a team game and we need seven riders going well.