Sheffield Tigers speedway: Weakened Tigers lose heavily without injured Tai Woffinden at Peterborough

Sheffield lost heavily at Peterborough, with Tai Woffinden side-lined with a suspected broken hand.

With Woffinden possibly needing an operation on the hand he injured in the British grand prix on Saturday evening, it was left to Tobiasz Musielak to score the majority of the Tigers' points, with 16 from seven rides.

But once again the evening ended in defeat at the East of England Arena, with Panthers taking the points on the night with a 53-37 margin of victory, as well as the bonus point in a 98-85 aggregate over home and away meetings.

Speaking to the British Speedway Network before the meeting, manager Simon Stead suggested Woffinden may need an operation on the hand he had injured in Cardiff.

And the three time former World Champion was missed on a track where he had scored highly for Sheffield a week ago.

Tigers failed to record a heat advantage until heat 13, when Musielak and skipper Kyle Howarth managed a 4-2 success against Jordan Jenkins and Ben Cook, with Jenkins replacing former world champion Artem Laguta, who had injured his ankle after a collision with his team mate Chris Harris in heat 10.

And that was the only heat Tigers won, ending up on the losing the next heat 4-2, and then drawing 3-3 in the final heat.

Josh Pickering provided some back-up on the night, with nine, paid 10, from six rides.

Boss Simon Stead admitted Tigers had been beaten by the better team on the night.

He told BSN: "We were beaten by the better team. We have to hold our hands up and say we were not good enough. We were missing the brilliance of Tai Woffinden . He wasn't here and we suffered from that. "

"We need to regroup and have a better performance on Thursday, and then look forward to the play-offs."

Peterborough 53: Benjamin Basso 12, Ben Cook 10+1, Chris Harris 9+2, Jordan Jenkins 9+2, Vadim Tarasenko 7+1, Artem Laguta 6, Niels-Kristian Iversen r/r.

Sheffield 37: Tobiasz Musielak 16, Josh Pickering 9+1, Kyle Howarth 6+1, Chris Holder 5+3, Claus Vissing 1, Jason Edwards 0, Tai Woffinden r/r.

Peterborough win the aggregate point