SHEFFIELD star Jack Holder was relieved to handle the pressure as they dumped rivals Belle Vue out of the Knockout Cup in a War of the Roses classic.

The Tru7 Group Tigers arrived at Owlerton trailing by eight points from their Quarter-Final first leg defeat in Manchester last month – and were still the same amount behind on aggregate with three programmed races to go.

But Holder led a 4-2 in Heat 13, a score which was matched by Josh Pickering and Jason Edwards in Heat 14 to take it down to the wire.

Holder then linked up with Woffinden for the required 5-1 to send the tie to a Super Heat decider where the pair combined once more to complete one of the competition’s classic comebacks.

It meant the current World Championship leader was beaten by an opponent just once in six outings, and Holder was thrilled to help claim the bragging rights for all connected with the club.

"It's a bit of a local derby between Sheffield and Belle Vue so it's always good to get one up on them,” he said.

"We'd rather get it done earlier on in the meeting but the fans would've loved the Super Heat.

"It's probably good to watch but it's not good for us with all the pressure on us!”

Holder agreed that the odds were stacked against them going off gates one and three in three of the final four races – despite choosing those positions for the Super Heat.

And following a Stock Car event at the venue last weekend, the Aussie says the track was much trickier on Thursday night.

"It's only our third meeting here and the track was a little bit different again - she was like concrete out there,” he said.

"It caught us off guard a little bit but we came home strong and managed to get it done.

"Gate three is garbage here but we managed to pop off those starts.

"We managed to get a bit of a streak going and then we'd have gate three and the tables had turned quite quickly.

"I was running out of good bits off gate one, they were all pretty much the same, so it was just a case of sitting up and hoping for the best.

"We managed to get off that start, have a look and he (Woffinden) was there and we brought it home.”

Sheffield are now due to face King’s Lynn in the Semi-Finals with both legs scheduled for the opening week of June.

In the meantime, the Tru7 Group Tigers face a quick return to Owlerton as they host Ipswich in the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership on Monday (May 13, 7.30pm) in a repeat of last year’s Grand Final.

PREMIERSHIP KNOCKOUT CUP QUARTER-FINAL, 2ND LEG
SHEFFIELD 49: Tai Woffinden 13, Jack Holder 12+2, Chris Holder 9+1, Josh Pickering 7+1, Kyle Howarth 3, Jason Edwards 3, Dan Gilkes 2.
BELLE VUE 41: Dan Bewley 10+1, Norick Blodorn 7, Jaimon Lidsey 6+2, Ben Cook 6, Brady Kurtz 4+1, Connor Mountain 4+1, Connor Bailey 4.
Aggregate scores tied (90-90) – Sheffield beat Belle Vue 7-2 in Super Heat