SHEFFIELD boss Simon Stead believes “togetherness” has powered his side to the top of the league.
Tigers now lead the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership by four points, taking over from the Witches who have held onto the top position for most of the season.
The win at Foxhall on Monday didn’t come easy with track conditions forcing riders off their bikes on the first few races.
Stead said: “The track was the same for everybody, I never really like that excuse because everybody is riding it.
“But the fact that we just knuckled down and went about our business is the best thing I can say about this one.
“I think togetherness within the group helped turn things around; we had to work hard together to find that set-up that we were missing in the early heats.
“The gate swing also came our way, and we took advantage of that.”
Tigers turned the meeting around in Heat 10, taking a three-point advantage on the Witches, which grew throughout the meet, and left them with a 52-38 win.
Aussie ace, Josh Pickering, was in great form, racking up 18+2 from seven rides and dropping only one point in his opening outing.
Pickering received strong support from Jack Holder, who scored 12+1, and Chris Holder with 11+3, as well as Kyle Howarth with 9+2 points.
For the depleted Witches, it was GP star, Dan Bewley who held the fort, top scoring with 9+1 points.
This loss marked the second home defeat in five days for the Witches, underlining injury problems they currently face with the loss of Jason Doyle, Emil Sayfutdinov, and Adam Ellis.
Ipswich boss Ritchie Hawkins said: “We started the meeting really well, but threw a few points away and should have built a bigger lead.
“All in all, when they came back at us, we didn’t have a reply, and that was mainly down to not having enough bodies in the team.
“But overall, they were the better team on the night.
“At the moment, we are too short of bodies and are not at our best, but this is the situation we are in, and we have to deal with it.”
Witches will be hoping for a comeback in their next meeting against Belle Vue tomorrow.
Words by Freya Taylor.
Images by Taylor Lanning.