Setback adds to Wolves' problems on the road

Peterborough 59 Wolves 34

As Robert Louis Stevenson put it, "to travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive".

Wolves took their customary drubbing on the giant 336-metre East of England Showground circuit and now have just the trip to Eastbourne a week tomorrow if they are to register an away league win this season.

A serious accident on the M6 threw travel plans into disarray – one regular Wolves away fan actually rolled up just in time to see the final race, another home 5-1 – and once the action got under way there were all too few highlights for the visitors, despite the bonus of a Ty Proctor/Freddie Lindgren maximum in the opening race.

By the heat 10 interval the powerful Panthers were out of sight at 41-19 with every one of their team paid for at least one win.

Polish riders Norbert Kosciuch and Kacper Gomolski, who had struggled in the toils of Monmore's tight turns in Monday's Wolves victory, were as men transformed on the wide open spaces at Alwalton and both went unbeaten all evening.

But each had to work hard for the reward as the Wolves trio of Lindgren, Proctor and Tai Woffinden strove to limit the damage.

Proctor, whose first Elite League steps were taken with Peterborough, still knows the quick way round and had two victories over star guest Kenneth Bjerre in his first three outings.

He had to work very hard for the second one as Bjerre pressed – and even harder afterwards to wring the traditional raised hand acknowledgement from his rival before the Dane grudgingly acquiesced with the merest flutter of the fingers.

Proctor was also involved in the race of the night in heat eight although, given that he finished third on a double-point tactical ride, it's one he will remember with little pleasure.

Gomolski took up the early running from Proctor before Krzysztof Buczkowski rounded them both on the third turn.

From there a superb scrap saw Gomolski and Proctor twice swap positions before the Pole was just able to repel the Wolf's final inside thrust going into the last turn.

Kosciuch had his sternest examination in the next race, battling with Woffinden for the first couple of laps before pulling away.

Wolves missed Peter Karlsson on his favourite circuit, the skipper on Allsvenskan play-off duty in his native Sweden.

Ludvig Lindgren endured a night of struggle and the reserve pairing of Tero Aarnio and Lubos Tomicek was never going to worry the home duo of Gomolski and former Wolves number eight Richard Lawson.

Having said that, Aarnio was on the pace – he even had an unlikely dart at passing Troy Batchelor in one heat – while Tomicek briefly led heat 12 and only lost what would have been a spirited second place when succumbing to Gomolski's last-bend pass.

Woffinden finished with a win while Lindgren took the six points on offer from his tactical ride to head the away scorechart.

His night was also to end in disappointment, retiring from the final race after Kosciuch, perhaps struggling for control, went perilously wide on the first turn and nearly put him in the fence. Now Wolves must travel – hopefully – to Arlington to face the Eagles.

Peterborough: K Bjerre 8+1, K Buczkowski 7+1, N Kosciuch 13+2, L Sundstrom 10+2, T Batchelor 6, R Lawson 6, K Gomolski 9+3.

Wolves: F Lindgren 13+1, T Proctor 9, L Lindgren 1+1, T Woffinden 9, P Karlsson rider-replacement, L Tomicek 1, T Aarnio 1.