Sheffield Tigers v Belle Vue Aces

SHEFFIELD moved top of the Premiership with a 57-33 home win over Belle Vue to set up a play-off showdown with Wolverhampton.

The Tigers will visit Monmore Green in the first leg of the semi-final on Monday, leaving the Aces to tackle Ipswich in the other semi, starting at Foxhall next Thursday.

It was the biggest win of the season for the Owlerton side, who had Tobiasz Musielak (12+1) and Jack Holder (11+1) in double figures as they raced to a ninth home victory out of nine.

The Aces were hampered by the absence of Max Fricke following his crash in last weekend’s Swedish GP, with Brady Kurtz top-scoring on 12 points.

Sheffield boss Simon Stead said: “That was really good. Belle Vue have been really dominant of late so to get a win like that over such a good team is obviously pleasing.

“You look through the scorecard and everybody did their bit, everybody chipped in and while we won’t be taking anything for granted now in the play-offs, we are really pleased.”

Belle Vue manager Mark Lemon said: “While this result doesn’t affect our position as regards to the top four, we approach every meeting with the intention of winning and we are disappointed to have fallen short.

“But at the same time we now know where to shift our focus, and our focus now turns to our semi-final against Ipswich in a week’s time.

“We’ve been saying for a while that we’re not overly concerned about who we meet in the semi-finals, and I think the boys are quite looking forward to this one.”

SHEFFIELD 57: Tobiasz Musielak 12+1, Jack Holder 11+1, Adam Ellis 9+1, Kyle Howarth 8+1, Connor Mountain 6+4, Justin Sedgmen 6+1, Lewis Kerr 5+1.
BELLE VUE 33: Brady Kurtz 12, Matej Zagar 9, Charles Wright 5, Norick Blodorn 4, Jye Etheridge 2, Tom Brennan 1+1, Max Fricke r/r.

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Photo credit: PHIL McGLYNN