Peterborough Panthers send a depleted team to a happy hunting ground

Simon Lambert rides again for Panthers in Ipswich. Photo: David Lowndes.

Peterborough Panthers are again forced into wholesale changes for their Premiership clash with Ipswich at Foxhall on Thursday.

Michael Palm Toft and Hans Andersen both remain on the sidelines, with Andersen approaching the end of a mandatory nine-day period of inactivity following concussion.The Crendon Panthers had hoped that Ulrich Ostergaard would be able to make his comeback, but the Dane has failed a fitness test and must wait a little while longer before he returns to action.As with last Thursday’s away match at King’s Lynn, guest options are extremely limited with the Stars due to race against Sheffield and the majority of riders from the two non-racing Premiership clubs, Belle Vue and Wolverhampton, are automatically ruled out by their average.Panthers will operate rider replacement for Palm Toft, whilst Drew Kemp of Wolves stands in for Ostergaard, and Simon Lambert gets another booking to replace Andersen.Ipswich also make a change with Paul Starke ruled out after his crash on Monday, with former Witches rider Cameron Heeps coming in to replace him.Panthers manager Rob Lyon said: “We’ll go there and do the best we can. Ipswich has always been a happy hunting ground for us in the last two years, but this time we’re going with a weakened team.“I’ve got three riders out who I’ve got to replace, but there are just no riders around and that’s the bottom line.“But we’ll give it 100 per cent as we always try to do, and see how we come out the other end!“Hans is out until Friday, so hopefully he will be back for Belle Vue (next Thursday) and Ulrich hopefully will also be back then too, but there’s no guarantees of that at this stage.”IPSWICH: Jason Doyle, Aaron Summers, Danny King, Rohan Tungate, Troy Batchelor, Cameron Heeps, Anders Rowe.PETERBOROUGH: Chris Harris, Drew Kemp, Simon Lambert, Benjamin Basso, Michael Palm Toft r/r, Scott Nicholls, Jordan Jenkins.