Monmore woe for Wolves speedway

Wolves 46 Birmingham 43

Wolves' play-off challenge is suffering where they least expected it - at Monmore Green.

Their four points on the road, if a touch underwhelming, is at least a respectable tally.

But the drip feed of points lost at their former fortress is threatening to become a stream rather than a trickle.

Only two home matches out of seven have brought the full three-point return and, last night, Birmingham joined the list of visitors to take at least some of the spoils.

It could have been worse. The Brummies led by five points early on after a race of mayhem in heat three and, even after they were eventually overhauled, hit back to go one up with three to run.

But Wolves' star turn Fredrik Lindgren jetted clear to take the 13th and, although captain Peter Karlsson was passed neatly by Krzysztof Kasprzak, the third-place point was enough to nose Wolves ahead once more.

Yet the match took another twist in heat 14, when the anxious Ricky Wells blasted through the tapes to earn a 15-metre handicap.

Though bad news on the face of it, the silver lining was that the penalty moved his partner Tai Woffinden off the graveyard gate four – not a single point from the previous four heats – and onto trap two.

Woffinden duly took the honours and Lindgren closed out the match by taking the flag in the last, Karlsson's third place after being passed by Ben Barker enough to widen the victory margin.

Lindgren, Karlsson and Woffinden – who surely merited a heat 15 nomination – did more than enough between them to ensure a comfortable home victory.

But, Ty Proctor aside, there was insufficient backing down the order.

The Brummies, with Kasprzak giving arguably his best performance yet at Monmore, were always in contention. A year ago, the Pole produced a dismal showing at the Green for Lakeside as the axe which hung over him duly fell immediately afterwards.

Birmingham's interest in Hans Andersen suggests a similar fate may yet befall him at his new club.

If it does, then he can at least go out on a high. Andersen took the scalp of Lindgren in heat one – the Swede's sole defeat – and performed with zest all night.

With Barker robust, Danny King solid and reserve Ulrich Ostergaard transferring his warm-up shadow boxing in the pits into punching above his weight on track, the visitors gave their travelling support plenty to cheer.

Their five-point advantage came after Ludvig Lindgren piled into the locked-up Barker when trying to pass him out of the pits corner.

Referee Chris Durno gave this one plenty of thought before disqualifying the Wolves rider.

The rerun saw Woffinden pirouette and fall in virtually the same place to hand Birmingham a 5-0.

But if Barker was more sinned against than sinning in the clash with Lindgren, he certainly made his presence felt in both runnings of the heat.

On each occasion he rode straight into Woffinden out of the start and, for good measure, went perilously close to stuffing him into the home straight safety fence in the rerun.

But Woffinden survived and so – just – did Wolves.

By Tim Hamblin