Sheffield speedway: Tai Woffinden confident despite Tigers defeat, and pleased to see Oxford back

Sheffield's three time speedway world champion Tai Woffinden is confident the Tigers can beat Oxford at home, after their narrow defeat last night.

And he spoke of his delight at riding at Oxford, with the home side having returned to speedway and the top flight after having been absent from the sport for several years.

Sheffield lost 47-43 last night, and the Sheffield number five, starting a season in England for the first time in several years pointed to Chris Holder laying down his bike to avoid Josh Pickering, and his own engine failure in his first heat, while he was leading the race, as points lost that made a difference.

He said: "It's not ideal, but it was pretty close in the end. I'm quite confident we can turn them over pretty easy at Sheffield."

The club had received no pre-season practice, having had no 'press day' at Owlerton and with a planned practice session on Wednesday evening rained off.

Woffinden described the meeting as their 'press day' and said there were positives to take forward.

He said of the Oxford track: "This is the first time I've been here since 2007, so I want to say a massive congratulations to anyone who's involved with Oxford speedway, not only the people who are running it, the sponsors behind it, and all the fans that are coming week in week out, because without the fans, speedway wouldn't be possible.

"And the track here is unbelievable - it's such a nice track to ride. I can't remember it being this nice in 2007. It's great to be back here and long may it continue."

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Sheffield now face Birmingham away on Monday, and then host their first home meeting of the season against Oxford at Owlerton.

He said: "The play-offs have started now, so we're going to take as much as we can throughout the year. The goal is to not use any tactical heats. We want to go through the card and all the riders all firing, that's the ultimate goal for everybody. Looking forward to the challenge."

OXFORD 47: Charles Wright 11, Rohan Tungate 9, Chris Harris 9, Lewi Kerr 7+1, Maciej Janowski 5+3, Nicolai Klindt 5+2, Aston Boughen 1.

SHEFFIELD 43: Tai Woffinden 12, Jack Holder 9+1, Josh Pickering 7, Chris Holder 5+1, Kyle Howarth 5, Jason Edwards 3, Dan Gilkes 2+1.