Simon Stead: Sheffield boss fires warning to underachieving riders

Tigers face two big meetings on the road next week at King’s Lynn on Monday and Ipswich on Thursday and they are sure to need a point or two – as long as they get back to winning ways at home.

If they slip up at Owlerton again when they return on August 12 against Wolverhampton the pressure would ramp up significantly with the battle for the play-offs looking like a straight shootout between Sheffield and Ipswich.

Said Stead: “There are concerns between us, of course there are, there are riders in the team who know they should be doing better.

“But there’s no reason why they can’t put it right. We’ll continue to work with them and help them but I must admit that home defeat by Peterborough in front of the TV cameras was a tough one to take.

“When you look at our next home meeting, we’ve got Wolverhampton and they are a top team and we’ve got riders who are struggling, we have to put that right at the first opportunity.

“We’ve got two important away meetings now and we need to pick something up from both of them. A point each would be fine but I’m a winner and I want to go there and win both meetings, that would be such a boost to our season.

“We don’t like looking at the team and considering changes, but we’ve done it once this season and if the opportunity arises I’m sure we would do it again. The challenge is there for the lads to show us what they can do.”

Tickets are now on sale for the Wolverhampton meeting with a link on the club’s official website homepage. The bar, sack bar and restaurant are all open again and there is the option to pay cash on arrival if that’s what fans prefer to do.