TEAM boss Trevor Swales insists the Peterborough can still reach the Knock Out Cup Final – despite a first leg home defeat.

TEAM boss Trevor Swales insists the Peterborough can still reach the Knock Out Cup Final – despite a first leg home defeat.

The Readypower Panthers travel to Poole for the semi final, second leg on Wednesday trailing by seven points after going down 43-50 in front of their own fans.

Swales claimed: “It’s going to be a massive hill to climb, but we can do it.

“Coventry went and won by 10 down there so they’ve shown that it is more than possible.

“We just need to get ourselves a good start and hope that they have a few problems. It’s going to be hard, but it’s do-able.”

It’s a valiant rallying call but the Panthers will certainly need to be far sharper for the return.

A near three-week absence from track action saw a sluggish home side constantly outsmarted by Poole, who bounced back after their shock Elite League Grand Final defeat at the hands of surprise champions Coventry.

But it was the Bees’ Wimborne Road performance which gives Swales a glimmer of hope in a competition that has already dished up one major upset, Eastbourne booking their place in the final after a home-and-away double over regular season runners-up Wolverhampton.

Poole benefited enormously from the convenient absence of Poland racer Artur Mroczka.

His replacements dropped only one point to a home rider in four races – in startling contrast to Mroczka’s recent form which saw him collect only 11 points from his last four Poole matches!

Swales added: “We knew Poole would come and want to prove a point after the league defeat but it is no excuse for us. We were simply too inconsistent and we ran too many last places.

“We had riders who started bad and did well at the end, and riders who started good and went bad at the end, it was too inconsistent.

“As a team manager it is so frustrating to see. They were just gating so much better than us, and when you get a side come here and get paid 26 from their reserves, you’re in trouble.”

PETERBOROUGH 43 (Niels-Kristian Iversen 11:1, Kenneth Bjerre 10, Krzysztof Buczkowski 6, Troy Batchelor 6, Rory Schlein 5, Norbert Kosciuch 4:2, Dakota North 1).

POOLE 50 (Leon Madsen 14:2, Jason Doyle 9:1, Bjarne Pedersen 8:1, Chris Holder 8, Darcy Ward 7:2, Davey Watt 4:3, rider replacement for Artur Mroczka).