Scorpions suffer home loss

SCUNTHORPE SCORPIONS 40 PETERBOROUGH PANTHERS 50 (CHAMPIONSHIP)

HENDERSON INSURANCE Scunthorpe Scorpions lost their 100% home record in 2018, after suffering a 40-50 defeat to Peterborough Panthers in a Championship clash at the Eddie Wright Raceway last night (Friday).

Still three men down due to injury, Scunthorpe simply ran out of cover against a Panthers team who are formidable on their travels and have a track specialist in former Scorpion Michael Palm Toft.

Scorpions edged into an early 17-13 advantage, but Panthers took the lead with a 5-1 in Heat 7.

Scorpions briefly levelled with a 5-1 from Josh Auty and Jake Allen in Heat 9, but Panthers moved ahead again in Heat 10 for a lead that they never surrendered.

Auty was in superb form and just missed out on a full maximum in Heat 15. The Yorkshireman finished as Scorpions’ top scorer on 14 points, ahead of Allen (8+2), guest Rory Schlein (8) and Jason Garrity (7).

With eight Championship teams in action and a limited number of guests available for the No 7 spot, Scorpions were outscored 14-3 in the reserve positions, with young British rider Tom Bacon proving the match-winner for Panthers with 12+2.

Scunthorpe promoter Rob Godfrey was philosophical in defeat. Speaking after the meeting, he said: “Our injuries finally caught up with us, it’s as simple as that.

“I realised a week ago that we would be against it against Peterborough, because there were eight other teams riding tonight, and we couldn’t use Todd Kurtz as a guest, because we used him last week instead in our victory over Newcastle.

“I used Todd last week, because there was a possibility that Gino might be back this week. Although, to be honest, if we had saved Todd until this week, then we may well have been in trouble last week as well.

“Everything that could go wrong did go wrong for us tonight. I’m convinced we could have won with a full side, but I don’t want to take anything away from Peterborough, who won fair and square.

“Well done to Tom Bacon, who was the match-winner for Peterborough with paid 14 from reserve. He had a fantastic night, and it’s good to see a young British rider doing well, as gutting as it was for us to lose.

“Of our injured riders, the one we’re really missing is Stefan Nielsen at No 2. He got his average up to 7.15 and was scoring big points at home. Rider replacement simply cannot cover that.

“Our thought process has been to have the guest at No 1, instead of at No 2, and have strong heat-leaders, but we’ll have a re-think about that. Our thoughts have already turned to the home clash against Lakeside next Friday and what we need to do to ensure we win that meeting.”

SCUNTHORPE 40: Josh Auty 14, Jake Allen 8+2, Rory Schlein 8, Jason Garrity 7, Danny Phillips 3, Jordan Stewart 0, Stefan Nielsen r/r
PETERBOROUGH 50: Michael Palm Toft 14, Tom Bacon 12+2, Scott Nicholls 9+1, Ulrich Ostergaard 7, Bradley Wilson-Dean 5+1, Simon Lambert 2, Ellis Perks 1