TREVOR Swales will preach patience to his title-chasing Peterborough side – as they bid to reach the Elite League Grand Final.

TREVOR Swales will preach patience to his title-chasing Peterborough side – as they bid to reach the Elite League Grand Final.

Readypower Panthers team boss Swales is frightened that his riders will try and adopt a bull in a china shop approach against semi final rivals Coventry tonight (Monday).

The Bees hold a healthy-looking 14-point lead going into the second leg at the East of England Showground.

But Swales insists: “We don’t need to panic if we don’t pull the points back quickly.

“That’s absolutely the worst thing we could do. If you are not careful there is a tendency to lose your head if things don’t go your way straight from the off.

“But it’s not the score after five races that matters – it’s what happens after the 15th and last heat.

“Obviously we would all love to make a flying start and nothing would be more pleasing than to wipe out the deficit after half a dozen races – but it’s not the end of the world if we are still all square beyond the midway stage.

“Our fans can help by being patient as well – their uneasiness easily transmits itself to the riders and that’s the last thing we want.

“In the first leg at Coventry we were only two points behind going into the last three races and then they floored us with three maximum heat wins.

“If that can happen at Brandon then it can also happen at the Showground.

“Against Swindon on Friday night in the Knock Out Cup we made a slowish start and were only two points up after four races yet we thumped them to win by 21 points.”

Swales will lean on all the experience gained the last time Peterborough won the Elite League crown in 2006.

Rivals Reading actually led by 12 points with three races of the Grand Final left – and the Panthers pulled it out of the bag to take the trophy in a nail-biting last heat decider!

Added Swales: “Virtually everyone had given up and Reading were already beginning their celebrations – that shows how things can turn around in the space of a few heats and we have to remember that right up until the end.”

Peterborough are back at full strength with Frenchman Mathieu Tresarrieu – who missed Friday’s win because he was en route to the World Long Track Championship Final – back in the line-up.

He missed out on his bronze medal bid and had to settle for sixth place overall after scoring 11 points in the sixth and final round at Marianske Lazne in the Czech Republic.