SHEFFIELD have booked their place in the play-offs in their first Premiership season with a warning from boss Simon Stead - ‘we must do better’.
They crashed to a 54-36 defeat at a rejuvenated Belle Vue on Monday despite keeping the scoreline close until they suffered a late collapse.
King’s Lynn’s defeat at Wolverhampton made mathematically certain of a top four spot for the Owlerton men but Stead was in no mood for celebration.
Jack Holder failed to win a race all night on a track where he notched a staggering 19 points on his previous visit and Troy Batchelor suffered three last places in his four outings.
Holder charged into the tapes in Heat 13 and went from 15 metres in the rerun with little chance of making any impact on the pacy Belle Vue bowl.
“Not good enough, simple as that,” was Stead’s verdict.
“We were beaten by a better team and it’s disappointing, I’m left frustrated again.
“They were better than us and I’m not going to offer any excuses, we just weren’t good enough.
“We need to lift ourselves for Thursday when we go to King’s Lynn and we know the areas of the team where we didn’t perform as we should expect.”
Meanwhile Tigers have rearranged their outstanding home fixture against King’s Lynn for Sunday September 26 at 5pm. It’s the only date they could find before the play-offs.
BELLE VUE 54: Dan Bewley 14+1, Steve Worrall 12, Brady Kurtz 9, Tom Brennan 9, Charles Wright 5+2, Jye Etheridge 3+1, Simon Lambert 2.
