TOP Tiger Richard Hall suffered a suspected broken bone in his foot as Sheffield went down to a frustrating late defeat at Somerset in last night's Premier League clash.
But the teak-tough racer is expected to take his place in the side to face Newcastle tomorrow night.
With Somerset clinging to a fragile two-point lead, Sheffield looked to be onto a winner when Hall and Chris Mills shot from the tapes in heat 14 – only for Hall to lose control and crash heavily, with Mills also biting the dust.
Hall received lengthy medical treatment and was excluded from the re-run, although Mills picked himself up to notch a superb win from the back and take it to a last-heat decider.
But Aussie duo Steve Johnston and Cory Gathercole made certain of the victory as they overpowered Ricky Ashworth and Paul Cooper in the finale, although Tigers did take a bonus point for their efforts.
It had all started promisingly for Sheffield, despite being without Josh Auty following a crash the previous night.
Ashworth got them off to a good start by beating Johnston in the opener and then Cooper and Mills carded Tigers' first 5-1 in heat 2.
The Rebels hit back in the next race only for Hugh Skidmore to pass Somerset's Simon Walker in heat 5 with Ashworth doing likewise to put the visitors 17-13 up.
In a see-saw match, Rebels again levelled when Cooper and Skidmore couldn't stop Walker and Emil Kramer in heat 9 before Joel Parsons pulled off a fine win in the next race when he beat Johnston, with Hall's extra point putting Tigers two points up.
The next two heats were squared leaving Sheffield 37-35 up with three races to go.
But it all went awry in heat 13 as Johnston finally made amends for his earlier blips by teaming up with Cory Gathercole for a 5-1 which put the home side ahead for the first time and they went on to make certain of a third successive win against the steel city outfit.
Tigers now head for Newcastle tomorrow in a must-win match, with Hall expected to ride despite his injury, although Auty is likely to remain on the injured list.
SOMERSET: C. Gathercole 14 , S. Johnston 11+2, E. Kramer 8+1, S. Walker 8+1, T. Brown 3+1, N. Simmons 2+2, J. Sedgman 2.
TIGERS: R. Ashworth 10+1, P. Cooper 8+2, C. Mills 7, R. Hall 6, H. Skidmore 6, J. Parsons 5+2.

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