SHEFFIELD were reduced to five riders in a damaging 53-37 defeat at Peterborough on Monday in which they missed out on the aggregate point.
An outstanding performance from Tai Woffinden saw him go unbeaten from his first six rides, but his run ended when he was on the end of a 5-1 at the hands of Vadim Tarasenko and Niels-Kristian Iversen in Heat 15.
The Tru Plant Tigers were without No.1 Tobiasz Musielak after a heavy crash in Poland one day before, and they suffered a further blow when Rising Star Dan Gilkes tangled with his opposite number Jordan Jenkins on the back straight in Heat 2 and both crashed heavily.
Gilkes was withdrawn from the meeting and Jenkins followed suit shortly after, but whilst the Panthers had a flying Patryk Wojdylo in the No.6 berth, Tigers struggled for consistent support for Woffinden, with Adam Ellis failing to score from four rides.
Woffinden showed his class by passing Iversen to win Heat 4, and then came from the back once again in Heat 9 to get the better of Ben Cook and team up with Lewis Kerr for a 5-1.
He then produced a hat-trick of win sin Heats 11-13 to maintain a two-point aggregate lead for the Tigers, whose focus by now was on defending their 14-point margin from the reverse fixture at Owlerton.
Heat 14 was also shared with Josh Pickering defeating Cook and Wojdylo, so Tigers were favourites to take the aggregate point as they required another 3-3 in Heat 15.
But Woffinden and Pickering were outgated by Tarasenko and Iversen, and a tremendous battle followed with Woffinden seemingly coming through on a couple of occasions before Iversen somehow responded.
Defeat leaves the Tigers still fifth in the league table, two points behind Ipswich who picked up an aggregate point at Wolverhampton – but Sheffield do still have four matches in hand.
They return to action at home to Wolves this Thursday (August 24) before visiting Leicester on Saturday.
SPORTS INSURE PREMIERSHIP R1 PETERBOROUGH 53: Patryk Wojdylo 13+2, Vadim Tarasenko 12+1, Niel-Kristian Iversen 9+3, Ben Cook 8+1, Benjamin Basso 6+2, Chris Harris 4+1, Jordan Jenkins 1 SHEFFIELD 37: Tai Woffinden 18+1, Josh Pickering 8, Lewis Kerr 6, Kyle Howarth 5, Adam Ellis 0, Dan Gilkes 0, Tobiasz Musielak r/r Peterborough win aggregate bonus point
