PETERBOROUGH are hoping for one final flourish at home as they host Wolverhampton at the East of England Arena on Tuesday.
It’s the last Premiership match of the season for the Crendon Panthers, who have seen their hopes fall apart in a run of twelve successive defeats during the second half of the campaign.
Inconsistent form and an almost never-ending injury list have conspired against them from a position of some promise earlier in the summer – so it is somewhat ironic that they go into their league finale with the novelty of a full-strength team.
Recent home defeats by Belle Vue and Swindon saw the Panthers miss out in last-heat deciders, and another tough encounter is on the cards against Wolves, who have made it into the play-offs and are arguably the Premiership’s in-form side.
A solid top-five includes Kyle Howarth returning from injury, whilst at reserve the visitors track Australian star Ryan Douglas – who guested for Panthers to such spectacular effect against Swindon.
Panthers are led at No.1 by British Champion Charles Wright, whilst Scott Nicholls and Ty Proctor secured silverware at second-tier level for Leicester – alongside Douglas – in the Championship Shield Final at the weekend.
At reserve, Jason Garrity returns from illness alongside Ulrich Ostergaard, who piled up 15+1 for Newcastle in their local derby win over Redcar on Sunday.
Panthers boss Carl Johnson said: “Hopefully we can send the supporters into the winter break with something to smile about, because it hasn’t been easy this year.
“We’ve had a lot of bad luck, I think every single rider has been out at some point, but we’ve battled, and we will do everything we can to ensure mistakes aren’t repeated in 2020.
“We only have this match against Wolves to break this awful run we have been on, and we’re back to our own full one-to-seven which hasn’t happened too many times this season.”
PETERBOROUGH: Charles Wright, Ty Proctor, Hans Andersen, Scott Nicholls, Rohan Tungate, Ulrich Ostergaard, Jason Garrity. WOLVERHAMPTON: Sam Masters, Kyle Howarth, Rory Schlein, Nick Morris, Jacob Thorssell, Ryan Douglas, Luke Becker.