NARROW ADVANTAGE FOR PANTHERS

PETERBOROUGH overcame the loss of Michael Palm Toft to record a 46-44 victory at Wolverhampton in the first leg of their Premiership play-off semi-final.

Palm Toft was only able to take one rider after suffering injuries to his fingers in a Heat 3 fall, reducing the Panthers to a five-man side.

But Chris Harris (17), Scott Nicholls (12+2) and Hans Andersen (11+2) all took seven rides for the visitors, and a 4-2 from Harris and Nicholls in the final race means they take an advantage into their home leg next Monday.

Rory Schlein (10+1) won three races for Wolves but touched the tapes in Heat 15, with the hosts left to rue a pre-meeting downpour followed by a flying start for the Panthers.

Peterborough boss Rob Lyon said: “It was backs to the wall with Tofty unfortunately crashing out, and a couple of refereeing decisions went against us as well, but the boys were superb again.

“I’m proud of them all. They took it to Wolves, and to get a result when faced with that sort of scenario was tremendous.

“But it’s only halfway, and Wolves are more than capable of coming to our place and getting a result, so we’ve got to focus on winning that meeting and going through.”

Wolves manager Peter Adams said: “I don’t want to make excuses but a wet track, as everybody in this game knows, always favours the away side because the track isn’t what we expect it to be.

“Our track staff had done marvellously to prepare it the way we wanted it and then the rain comes along at just the wrong time and puts us on the back foot. Principally, I think that’s why we got off to a bad start.

“We did very well to battle back and get level with them and we were in a position towards the end where we could have taken an advantage to Peterborough, which would have been nice – but it’s not the be all and end all.”

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Photo credit: PAUL ROSE