Speedway Report: Sheffield Tigers 59 Glasgow 31

They head to Scotland on Tuesday on the front foot and will face Edinburgh or Ipswich if they finish the job.

Ipswich hold a 10-point lead from their home leg with the decider tonight.

Any pre-meeting nerves were soon settled for Sheffield as they gained three opening heat advantages.

Josh Grajczonek flew from the outside to hit the front while Todd Kurtz, who was returning from injury, rode smartly to fend off the challenge from talented teen Dan Bewley at the back.

The Tigers sealed another 4-2 in the second as Jan Graversen made the jump from the inside, and despite the best efforts of Georgie Wood blasting around the boards, he was forced to settle for third place. But the hosts earned their first maximum through Josh Bates and Lasse Bjerre who beat up their opponents in the opening bends.

While guest reserve James Sarjeant stopped the rot for the visitors after an impressive outside charge in the fourth, normality of the night was soon resumed as the Tigers chipped in with four 5-1 maximums in the next five races.

The hosts took advantage of Dan Bewley being excluded for attempting to start without a dirt deflector in the fifth before Grajczonek and Kurtz had to battle their way around the visiting reserves in the sixth.

They went into the interval with a 40-14 lead before the visitors offered some brief resistance. Worrall and Summers both clamped their Sheffield counterparts down in the opening bends to lead back-to-back heat advantages for Glasgow before Sarjeant rode every line possible to hold of Bjerre in the re-run of Heat 12 after the Dane had forced an error from Summers in the initial staging.

But the Tigers fought back as Grajczonek returned to winning ways in Heat 13 after charging under Lawson down the back straight of lap 2 before Bates shut his eyes and squeezed by Worrall on bend four of the penultimate race to join team-mate Graversen for a 5-1.

SHEFFIELD 59: Jan Graversen 12+2, Josh Grajczonek 11+1, Josh Bates 10+2, Lasse Bjerre 10+2, Kyle Howarth 8, Todd Kurtz 6+1, Georgie Wood 2+1.

GLASGOW 31: Richard Lawson 11, James Sarjeant 10, Richie Worrall 4, Aaron Summers 4, Dan Bewley 2, Alfie Bowtell 0,

Nike Lunna R/R.