TIGERS WIN CLASSIC CONTEST
SHEFFIELD ended Ipswich’s 100 per cent start to the season with a last-heat 5-1 to win a pulsating ROWE Motor Oil Premiership contest 46-44 at Owlerton.
The Witches put themselves in with a great chance of extending their superb run when they took maximum points in Heat 14 through Danny King and Dan Thompson to put them two points ahead.
But a tremendous Heat 15 saw Josh Pickering hit the front for the Tigers whilst Jack Holder found a way past Jason Doyle on turn three with Emil Sayfutdinov missing out, to leave the home side celebrating.
In-form Pickering piled up a 14-point haul for the Tigers whilst Doyle led the way for the Witches with 10+1 as their lead at the top of the table was cut to two points.
Sheffield boss Simon Stead said: “I think we found it difficult in areas; we haven’t got the points return from some areas that we would expect and I think if the truth be told, we were on the receiving end of a little bit of good fortune.
“We’ll take that and put the win on the board but we know when it comes to the crunch at the business end of the season, we’re going to have to perform much better than that against this Ipswich team.
“But Picko and Jack did the business and credit to both boys – as well as the other lads who really dug deep because that was a tough one.”
Ipswich manager Ritchie Hawkins said: “I thought it was a brilliant performance; it is the happiest I have come away from an away meeting since Belle Vue.
“I thought the boys were the better team and felt we were, not unfortunate because they were our own mistakes, but we made a couple of mistakes that cost us the win.
“We changed the riding order to experiment, and I don’t think that helped and we may well have won without that but I’m happy with where the boys are at, it is all positive and I am happy with a lot of the performances and that there is a lot more still to come.”
* Watch action from Heat 6 (courtesy of CLEAN CUT SPORTS)
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Photo credit: PHIL McGLYNN
