DEPLETED Sheffield let a ten point lead slip as they suffered their first home league defeat of the season at the hands of King’s Lynn on Thursday.

The Tigers lost 46-44 at Owlerton - despite moving into a 35-25 lead with just five races to go.

Without injured No.1 Jack Holder and main reserve Jye Etheridge, the Steel City side knew they would need a complete team display from start to finish against a King’s Lynn side desperate to make amends for dropping a point at home to bottom side Northampton earlier on the week.

And after racing themselves into a healthy position, Sheffield couldn’t reproduce the kind of strong finish that has served them so well on home shale in recent outings.

The hosts conceded two 4-2s in the opening three races before a stroke of luck before the first track grading break when bike issues for King’s Lynn’s Jordan Jenkins handed Luke Killeen a third place point whilst skipper Josh Pickering flew away from gate four to take the win.

Successive 5-1s then followed, first courtesy of Chris Holder and Leon Flint before Pickering then linked up with Anders Rowe to move the Tigers six ahead after six.

The visitors halted the run with a 4-2 of their own in Heat Seven before Killeen and Rowe settled for the minor placings in a shared Heat Eight.

Flint and Holder then delivered a 4-2 before the latter then re-appeared as the rider replacement outing in Heat Ten alongside Rowe as another 5-1 moved them ten ahead on the night - and saw them take the lead on aggregate for the very first time.

But from that moment on, it all unravelled for the Tigers as the visitors hit four consecutive 5-1s to wrap up the points with a race to spare before Holder and Pickering rounded off with one final consolation maximum of the Tigers’ own.

It’s a result which sees King’s Lynn move ahead of Sheffield in the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership standings as the Tigers slip out of the top four ahead of next Thursday’s (July 16, 7.30pm) trip to reigning champions Ipswich.

Team boss Simon Stead said: “It was just one of those nights tonight.

“Gate positions didn’t quite fall right for us, covering Jack at No.1 with R/R is really, really difficult; we tried something a little bit different with it tonight and we covered him okay, arguably better than we did last time.

“But when you are covering your No.1 with R/R, you need everybody to be firing and be at their best and it was tough.

“They rode really well, they’ve got numerous riders who ride our track very, very well and I was nervous about it all day that they are capable of a result like that and we’ve been on the receiving end.

“They were hungry, they needed to get some points on the board after a couple of home losses themselves and a draw against Northampton and I knew Rob (Lyon - King’s Lynn team manager) would have them firing.

“We couldn’t quite get it over the line; perhaps a draw would’ve felt a little bit better if Picko hadn’t have had his engine failure in Heat 13 but it’s just been one of those nights.

“You can find loads of excuses - but we’ve got to say well done to King’s Lynn.

“We’ve got to pick ourselves up and look at our options because R/R’s not quite working.”

SHEFFIELD 44: Josh Pickering 11+1, Chris Holder 11, Anders Rowe 8+3, Leon Flint 7+1, Luke Killeen 5+1, Jake Mulford 2, Jack Holder r/r.
KING’S LYNN 46: Max Fricke 13, Ben Cook 9+1, Jan Kvech 8+1, Chris Harris 6+1, Jordan Jenkins 5+1, Cooper Rushen 5, Jody Scott 0.
King’s Lynn win the aggregate point