Unhappy Hans is confident he will come good for Peterborough Panthers as he tries to explain his and the team's poor form

This week Holeshot Media talk with skipper Hans Andersen who tries to explain what has gone wrong this year – for both himself and the Panthers.

The Danish ace was one of the club’s heroes as they won the top-flight league title in both 2006 and 2021 but is now featuring in a side that is heading towards a second wooden spoon in a row with only one win in 12 matches this season.

Andersen said: “It’s been very difficult team-wise as well as personally, it’s been very hard because of the season we have had.

“It started off well on Press Day and there was a very positive vibe around everything, everyone seemed very keen, and we did really well in the first meeting even though we lost Nicki Pedersen in the first race. It was tough against an Ipswich side with some good riders, but with Nicki I think we would have won.

“We showed promising signs, but since then it just hasn’t happened. Various people are going up and down, myself included, and not in form. Being a team sport, we need everyone to score points, we ended up losing by eight points to Belle Vue on Monday, it only takes four points more from the Peterborough team and it ends up in a draw.

Except for Vadim Tarasenko, you look at our team and get one or two more points from all the riders and we easily get those extra four or five points.

“I don’t feel like I’m scoring what I should be, and I’m suffering from not having a proper organisation. I am struggling with the mechanic I have had the last couple of years not being with me any more.

“Josh Goodwin is a grass track rider, he races sidecars, but he has split up with his missus and he went back to live in Poole where he is originally from. He was my full-time mechanic and the reason he can’t do speedway now is he has had to get a normal job so he can get a mortgage to get his own place.

“I fully understand why he couldn’t couldn’t keep working for me. I always had a good organisation with him, but this season there was no-one available. Quite a lot of riders were advertising for full-time mechanics but there is a shortage.

“Now I have a mechanic, Rhys Naylor, who spanners for me, but he lives in Kent and only comes for meetings. I have to take my bikes to Spalding for someone to look after and prepare them in between matches.

“I’m flying into Stansted, getting the train, via Peterborough, to Spalding on a race day, picking up my van and taking my bikes to meetings instead of just turning up at the stadium and the bikes are there, prepared for racing.

“It’s a problem at the moment, there are no mechanics about in the UK any more. With England doing less and less meetings, most of the boys now have other jobs and do speedway on the side.

“It’s not ideal, but I’m trying to make it work and, at the same time, I’m having a engine issues, and, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter which rider you put on the bike, it’s the equipment between the legs that matters and I’m trying to figure that out.

“I don’t enjoy what I am doing at the moment, it’s not how I want it to be but, of course, I will stick it out. I’m working hard, but it’s giving me headaches, trying to figure out the way to sort everything. I’m keeping positive, it will come good at some stage when I get everything dialled in.

“I’m not the only one. Niels (Iversen) and Benjamin (Basso) travelled together on Monday night to Stansted and everyone is just very frustrated. We talk about it on the way because if we can help each other get going it will benefit the team. No-one wants to see a mate struggle.

“The long gaps between home matches doesn’t help. We didn’t have a meeting at the Showground for a month before Monday night and before that it was a three-week gap. It seems like the start of a new season all over again. I don’t want to knock the Peterborough track, but it is very different every time.

“For most people if you enjoy doing what you do, you do better and that’s why it’s always been important to be in good teams with a good spirit and people getting along well.”

Hans will be back at the East of England Arena on Sunday (4pm) as Peterborough fans pay homage to long serving team man Ulrich Østergaard in his farewell meeting.