Speedway: Sheffield boss Simon Stead encouraged by debutants - despite not winning the points he'd have wanted

Australian duo Justin Sedgmen and Todd Kurtz both made their first appearance of the season for the Tigers after signing last week but couldn’t stop the Owlerton outfit slipping to a 53-37 defeat at Leicester.

Kurtz’s total was hampered with bad luck throughout, including one race where his bike burst into flames, while Sedgmen eased back into action after almost three months out injured.

And Stead insists there were positive signs there from both of his new signings.

“To lose by 16-points is disappointing but there were positives to take out of the meeting and they’re what I want to focus on,” Stead said.

“Sedgy hasn’t had any competitive action and only a couple of practice spins for a significant amount of time.

“But he was on the pace, he made a couple of outstanding gates and it was good for him, and important of course, that he finished his rides off with a race win.

“He picked things up, and started going faster and faster with each ride and each lap he did and that bodes well.

“TK had most of our bad luck though and but for those unfortunate mechanical gremlins and bizarre scenes in his final ride, he would’ve finished with a really solid score tally.

“But again, he was in the mix, he managed to get a really convincing race win under his belt as well and we know there is a lot more to come from him.

“I think we had bad luck as a team throughout to be honest with you and some days those things happen in Speedway.

“When you go through it race-by-race we probably dropped four to six points and that eight to 12 point swing is pretty significant when you consider we lost by 16 in the end and left with nothing for our efforts.

“But there were plus points to take with us and they are what we have to focus on in such an important month for the team.”

Sheffield travel to Edinburgh on Friday (7.30pm) before hosting the Scottish side at Owlerton on Sunday (5.30pm).