WOLVERHAMPTON let a ten-point lead slip against league leaders King's Lynn on Monday to severely damage their outside play-off hopes.
The Parrys International Wolves missed out 47-43 in a last heat decider as the Stars registered an 11th win out of their last 12 fixtures.
Things started brightly for the Monmore men despite plenty of drama in the very first race.
Twice Kyle Howarth and Erik Riss went elbow-to-elbow into the first bend and twice it was the King's Lynn man who found himself on the deck. And despite the two incidents being identical, referee Chris Durno opted to throw Riss out of the race second time around.
Lone star Lambert got the better of the starts, but home man Sam Masters charged up the inside off bend two as the hosts opened with a 4-2.
The hosts were able to extend that lead in the third when home guest Nick Morris and Jonas B Andersen were able to hold off a hard charging Thomas Jorgensen while former Wolf Ty Proctor pulled up at the back, feeling the effects of a crash at Sheffield and withdrew from the rest of the meeting.
Jacob Thorssell was able to hold off ex-Wolves man Niels-Kristian Iversen in the fourth before home guest reserve Max Clegg steamed under Simon Lambert into bend three in the closing stages.
And Wolves opened up that ten-point advantage in the sixth when Masters drifted Iversen wide on the opening bends to allow Howarth through. But the Dane repaid the compliment on the very next lap and was forced to settle for second as Masters made it two-out-of-two.
But the comeback for the visitors started in the seventh race when they nominated captain Robert Lambert as a tactical substitute. He made the gate and was very briefly joined by team-mate Jorgensen before Thorssell used the inside run off bend two to salvage second place for the hosts.
But that would be the first of four straight heat advantages for the Stars as they drew level with ten gone.
And despite their best efforts, the Wolves couldn't handle King's Lynn's top duo of Iversen and Lambert who registered two heat advantages in the final three races to secure a narrow victory.
Popular Dane Jonas B Andersen said: "We are so disappointed with how the night went.
"We looked in control early on in the meeting, but they just got better as it went on and were stronger in the final few races.
"The team just have to try and finish as strongly as they can at Poole on Wednesday."
While not entirely mathematical, the Wolves would need an unlikely sequence of results to somehow make the top four "“ including a hefty win at Poole on Wednesday.
WOLVERHAMPTON 43: Jacob Thorssell 10, Nick Morris 8+1, Jonas B Andersen 7+1, Sam Masters 7, Kyle Howarth 6, Ashley Morris 4, Max Clegg 1.
KING'S LYNN 47: Robert Lambert 13+1, Niels-Kristian Iversen 13, Michael Palm Toft 7+2, Erik Riss 7+1, Thomas Jorgensen 4+1, Simon Lambert 3, Ty Proctor 0.
