PIRATES boss Neil Middleditch pulled no punches as he slammed his team’s “unacceptable” performance at Peterborough tonight.

Poole’s nightmare season went from bad to worse as they suffered a painful 59-34 hammering at the hands of their fellow strugglers.

Pirates were depleted due to the absences of Darcy Ward and Dennis Andersson but few could have expected them to collapse to such a heavy defeat.

Already well adrift of their play-off rivals, Pirates were dealt another mighty setback as the resurgent Panthers ran riot from heat seven onwards.

The Panthers went into the meeting bottom of the Elite League with just one victory – but they found their form and Pirates had no answer.

Poole have managed only two league wins this term and, aside from a relatively positive start at Peterborough, they did not come close to a third.

Although guest Chris Harris claimed two early successes and the scores were locked at 18-18 after six heats, the hosts then dished out one of Pirates’ heaviest losses in recent years.

Impressive Peterborough duo Kenni Larsen (15) and Patrick Hougaard (13+2) proved unbeatable as the Panthers racked up a barely believable seven 5-1s in nine heats to deliver a 59-34 drubbing.

Middleditch told the Daily Echo: “It was a dreadful result for us. Peterborough had been given a talking-to by their management and they came out all guns blazing. We had no reply to it.”

Pirates’ hopes were hampered by the continued unavailability of injured Ward, while guest Alex Davies deputised for Andersson.

Harris, drafted in for Ward, gave Pirates an encouraging start. Captain Chris Holder, Harris and Maciej Janowski then registered victories as the scores remained level at 18-18 after six heats.

That closely-contested start made what followed all the more remarkable. Once the Panthers’ star performers Larsen and Hougaard had racked up a maximum in the seventh race, Pirates failed to recover. Dawid Stachyra and Rohan Tungate shared the points with Hougaard before Peterborough crushed the visitors.

Ryan Fisher and Linus Sundstrom, Nicolai Klindt and Kenneth Bjerre, then Larsen and Hougaard, collected three 5-1s in a row.

Holder’s tactical win in heat 12 briefly stopped the rot but another maximum hat-trick – this time thanks to a Larsen and Bjerre double either side of Hougaard and Sundstrom, completed Poole’s dreadful night.

 

SCORES AND HEAT DETAILS

Panthers 59: 1 Kenneth Bjerre (1*-2-2*-2*-2*) 9+4, 2 Nicolai Klindt (2-1*-0-3) 6+1, 3 Ryan Fisher (2-0-3-2) 7, 4 Linus Sundstrom (1*-2-2*-2*) 7+3, 5 Kenni Larsen (3-3-3-3-3) 15, 6 Patrick Hougaard (3-2*-3-2*-3) 13+2, 7 Dakota North (1-0-1*) 2+1. Team manager: Jan Staechmann.

Pirates 34: 1 Chris Harris (guest) (3-3-1^-1-0) 8, 2 Dawid Stachyra (0-1-2-0) 3, 3 Chris Holder (3-r-0-6^-1) 10, 4 Alex Davies (guest) (0-1-1-1) 3, 5 Maciej Janowski (1*-3-1-0) 5+1, 6 Kyle Howarth (2-0-0-0) 2, 7 Rohan Tungate (0-2-1*-0) 3+1. Team manager: Neil Middleditch.

League points: Panthers 3 Poole Pirates 0.

Ht 1: Harris, Klindt, Bjerre, Stachyra, 61.2 (3-3)

Ht 2: Hougaard, Howarth, North, Tungate, 61.7 (7-5)

Ht 3: Holder, Fisher, Sundstrom, Davies, 61.5 (10-8)

Ht 4: Larsen, Tungate, Janowski, North, 60.1 (13-11)

Ht 5: Harris, Sundstrom, Stachyra, Fisher, 60.2 (15-15)

Ht 6: Janowski, Bjerre, Klindt, Howarth, 61.2 (18-18)

Ht 7: Larsen, Hougaard, Davies, Holder (retired), 62.2 (23-19)

Ht 8: Hougaard, Stachyra, Tungate, Klindt, 62.7 (26-22)

Ht 9: Fisher, Sundstrom, Janowski, Howarth, 62.5 (31-23)

Ht 10: Klindt, Bjerre, Davies, Holder, 62.3 (36-24)

Ht 11: Larsen, Hougaard, Harris (tactical rider), Stachyra, 62.1 (41-25)

Ht 12: Holder (tactical rider, double points), Fisher, North, Howarth, 61.4 (44-31)

Ht 13: Larsen, Bjerre, Harris, Janowski, 62.5 (49-32)

Ht 14: Hougaard, Sundstrom, Davies, Tungate, 63.5 (54-33)

Ht 15: Larsen, Bjerre, Holder, Harris, 63.1 (59-34)