PETERBOROUGH team boss Carl Johnson believes his side were “back on it” with a fighting display at Belle Vue.
The Crendon Panthers lost out 50-40 in the Supporters Cup at the National Speedway Stadium in Manchester.
It was a solid display by the new-look side but they just couldn’t produce enough heat winners to truly threaten a victory.
But Johnson was satisfied that progress is being made. He said: “We’re obviously disappointed to lose by 10 points. But we put up a better show tonight. Right from the word go we were on it.
“There’s a couple of issues still with bikes but we are trying to sort them out.
“I think the boys need a bit more bike time and meetings maybe. That’s the only way you get your fitness and sharpness back.
“At the end of the day the Belle Vue boys haven’t had a huge amount of time on the bike either so there’s no excuses there.
“It’s just that at the minute we are just not at it like we should be 100 per cent. But we’ll get there, slowly but surely.
“We’ve hit 40 points tonight against a good Belle Vue side, it’s tough here on this track so it’s not all bad.”
If Panthers hadn’t had Lasse Bjerre beleaguered by bike problems it could have been much closer. He lost power leading Heat 1 and also pulled up in his second outing.
Peterborough kept it tight though and trailed by just six points after Heat 10. But any hopes of a comeback were shattered by a home 5-1 from Dan Bewley and Jaimon Lidsey over Rohan Tungate in Heat 11.
The Panthers kept fighting though and Charles Wright grabbed a classy Heat 14 win before the Aces rounded it off in style with another maximum in the final heat.
Now Peterborough need to dust themselves down to face Wolverhampton at the East of England Arena on Thursday night.
BELLE VUE 50: Max Fricke 14, Dan Bewley 11, Kenneth Bjerre 10+1, Steve Worrall 8+2, Jaimon Lidsey 4+1, Ricky Wells 2+1, Dimitri Berge 1.
PETERBOROUGH 40: Rohan Tungate 9, Bradley Wilson-Dean 8+2, Charles Wright 8+2, Hans Andersen 6, Aaron Summers 5, Ben Barker 2+1, Lasse Bjerre 2.