WOLVERHAMPTON ended their 2018 campaign with yet another away defeat as they went down 55-35 at Poole.
It means the Parrys International Wolves have failed to register a single win on the road this year – a key factor in the Monmore Green side missing out on the end-of-season play-offs.
While Wimborne Road may have been the venue of their only away draw back in May, the Wolves were well beaten on this occasion as the Pirates warmed up for their title quest in style.
Hosts Poole opened with a 4-2 after home No.1 Brady Kurtz took advantage of a mistake from Sam Masters on bend four with Kyle Howarth unable to catch Josh Grajczonek out front.
But Wolverhampton drew back level two races later after guest pair Danny Ayres and Nick Morris made the most of quick reactions in the second and third respectively to take the chequered flag with Jonas B Andersen tucking in for third in the latter of those.
But Wolves’ unwelcome recent trend continued as they suffered a damaging mid-meeting period.
Four heat advantages against in the space of five races saw them fall 12-points behind, prompting team manager Peter Adams to nominate No.1 Masters as a tactical substitute in the ninth.
But the Australian was too keen to make a good getaway and was then unable to get amongst the points from a 15-metre handicap in the re-run as stand-in skipper Jacob Thorssell secured his first race win of the night.
And while Poole would go on to register three further heat advantages, Masters redeemed himself brilliantly, rounding his night off with a hat-trick of race wins – getting the better of Chris Harris, who showed plenty of speed on each occasion, in three highly enthralling tussles.
Team Manager Peter Adams said: “Poole are a strong team in their current shape and they deserved the win on the night.
“I’m not sure about their credentials when it comes to the play-offs themselves but they did good enough against us.
“Of course we wanted to finish on more of a positive note than this, but having your best two riders having to go off 15-metres hardly helps your cause either.
“Having said that, I thought the referee (Dave Robinson) could’ve done a bit better with some of the starts which were diabolical in the middle part of the meeting but Poole got away with them and I’m just glad that everyone is unscathed as well.
“I think the performance of Sam Masters tonight sums up our season – up-and-down.
“He had a breakdown after getting filled in, a tapes exclusion and sat on just two points from three rides.
“Then he comes out and wins three straight races against their strongest pairings.
“If he could do that in the first three rides, then confidence is totally different and we probably wouldn’t be looking at the final score that we have in the end.
“That’s no criticism of Sam by the way, far from, it’s just a good example of the inconsistencies in this team that have sadly shown more often than we’d have liked.
“It’s a shame we couldn’t finish off with a better score, but it is what it is and we already now have one eye on next season.”
The popular Olympique handicap individual will return after a two-year absence to officially close the season at Monmore Green on Monday, October 15 in an event sponsored by NGK Spark Plugs.
