WITCHES WIN SHEFFIELD THRILLER
IPSWICH took all three points available in a thrilling finish to their ROWE Motor Oil Premiership clash with title rivals Sheffield.
The battle of the top two lived up to expectations with the sides trading the lead and then going into Heat 15 level, where Tom Brennan and Emil Sayfutdinov recorded a 4-2 to clinch a 46-44 win on the night.
That was a reverse of the result at Owlerton earlier in the season which meant a Super Heat for the aggregate point – and whilst Tigers No.1 Jack Holder won the race, second and third places for Brennan and Sayfutdinov over Josh Pickering was enough for the hosts, who went three points clear in the league standings.
Sayfutdinov and Brennan both scored 10 from the main meeting as Brennan recovered from a fall in his first ride to win his last three.
Rising Star reserve Leon Flint impressed for the Witches with 10+3 whilst Holder picked up 10 despite being disqualified from his second ride following a clash with Brennan.
Ipswich boss Ritchie Hawkins said: “It was a really tight, close meeting and both teams will feel they could have done better. We won a lot of races but ran a lot of lasts which has been the opposite of how we have been this year, we haven’t run many last places.
“I’m delighted to be on the right end of the result including the aggregate point, but we had the home advantage and if the second leg was at Sheffield, they’d probably have won it, so I don’t take that much pleasure in that.
“We need to improve, and we are a bit lacklustre at the moment and we need to get the buzz back we had before the injuries.”
Sheffield manager Simon Stead said: “We had a little bit of good fortune throughout the meeting with Ipswich having a faller and a mechanical problem when in points scoring positions, but we were on the rough end of a couple of calls that I think the referee got wrong.
“The referee said there was no contact from Tom with Jack in Heat 5 – but the big rubber mark up his left leg says otherwise!
“We definitely didn’t get what we deserved, but that’s racing sometimes. The meeting itself was a good spectacle for the fans but we are disappointed because we’ve come away with nothing, and that is a tough one to take.”
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