A solid all round team display saw Peterborough defeat Swindon in front of the sky cameras to lift the Panthers off the bottom and all but dash the Robins chance of a top two finish.

The match was slightly marred by a bad looking crash for Mads Korneliussen who tumbled along the back straight after losing control and he took no further part in the meeting.

But even with a fit Korneliussen it's difficult to see how Swindon would have contained a confident Panthers team with even the lowest scorer getting 7 points.

Ryan Sullivan got the match off to a great start by jetting from the tapes and leading Leigh Adams all the way, and only a fall by Lukas Dryml in the later stages prevented Panthers from registering an opening heat advantage.

Nevertheless Claus Vissing and Ty Proctor soon rectified that with an opening maximum over Jurica Pavlic, who despite never having ridden the Showground before chased them all the way.

Mads Korneliussen took an early lead in heat 3 but was chased and passed fairly by Kenneth Bjerre at the start of lap 3, on leaving the second bend Korneliussen seemed to lose control catching the safety fence, and tumbled heavily along the back straight luckily being avoided by the following two riders.  The race was awarded by the referee and Korneliussen wisely withdrew from the meeting after being badly shaken up.

Pavlic showed why everyone has taken notice of his British debut with a tape's to flag victory in heat 4, but Troy Batchelor lost out in a tough but fair first corner with Daniel King and was never in contention after that.

Adams showed his style by winning his tussle with Bjerre in heat 5, but all eyes were on the back pair as James Wright slowly but surely reeled in Henning Bager passing him on the final lap to register Swindon's first race success and reduce Panthers lead to 6 points.

Batchelor made up for his first race duck with an impressive start in heat 6 and he was never troubled by the home pair who nevertheless filled the minor places to share the race.

Panthers then turned up the heat with two consecutive heat advantages, which saw Pavlic get second place in both races.  Danny King made a blistering start to win the 7th and Dryml despite early pressure wrapped up the 8th increasing Panthers lead to 10 points.

Batchelor repeated his earlier win with another tapes to flag win in the 8th but Joel Parsons came to grief on the last lap whilst last and fell heavily, thankfully he was able to walk away after treatment.

Sullivan & Dryml combined for a well deserved maximum over Pavlic in heat 10 to pile on the pressure on the Robins, and increase the lead on the night to 14 points.

Adams as expected came out as a tactical in heat 11 but the real surprise was Wright who swept around the outside of King and chased Adams hard all the way to the line for an emphatic 8-1 which put Swindon back into the match.

Bjerre steadied the home side with an impressive win over the overworked Pavlic in heat 12, whilst Vissing's third place over Parsons kept up the pressure.

Adams made another great start to lead heat 13 and was never troubled but Sullivan and a determined King ensured Batchelor was pegged at the rear for another shared heat which left the Robins 9 points adrift with two heats to go.

Swindon's last throw off the dice was to put Wright in as a tactical substitute to partner Pavlic in heat 14, but the plan failed miserably as Proctor and Bager both out trapped Pavlic and wrapped up the match with a deserved maximum.

Heat 15 saw Adams win whilst Sullivan got the better of Batchelor for second, with Bjerre unfortunately being excluded at the first attempt having had a close encounter of the air fence type on the third bend. Thankfully only his pride was hurt.

Ryan Sullivan was nominated as man of the match, but everyone was given lavish praise by team manager Wayne Swales at the press conference afterwards for a job very well done.

Peterborough 52
Ryan Sullivan 3-1'-3-2-2 = 11+1
Lukas Dryml F-2-3-2' = 7+1
Kenneth Bjerre 3-2-2-3-X = 10
Henning Bager 2'-0-1'-2' = 5+3
Danny King 1'-3-1-1' = 6+2
Ty Proctor 2'-1-0-3 = 6+1
Claus Vissing 3-2-1-1 = 7

Swindon 41
Leigh Adams 2-3-6-3-3 = 17
James Wright 1'-1'-0-2'-0 = 4+2
Mads Korneluissen X = 0
Travis McGowan 1-0-0 = 1
Troy Batchelor 0-3-3-0-1 = 7
Joel Parsons 0-0-F-0 = 0
Jurica Pavlic 1-3-2-2-1-2-1 = 12