Speedway: Simon Stead and Anders Rowe react after night of drama in Sheffield v Leicester play off semi
Simon Stead was ‘in shock’ after Sheffield saw their speedway play-offs semifinal first leg lead cut late on by a Leicester late show and a controversial exclusion.
The Sheffield team manager had just seen Tigers’ 14 point lead after heat 12 cut to three at the end of the play offs first leg against the Lions, and the controversial exclusion of both his riders in a heat 14 which was re-run three times before ending in an unopposed 5-0 win for Leicester.
He said: “To be so confident and going so well for so much of the meeting, to then only be three points up at the close of it is unbelievable really. But we have to pick ourselves up and we've seen how quickly a meeting can turn around.
“Unfortunately, when we get to these meetings, we always seem to be talking about poor refereeing decisions and unfortunately tonight’s no different.”
He said the number of rerun heats was something that could happen because the level of commitment in the first corners, and thought that was probably stepped up a notch in the play-offs.
He added: “I can’t believe we’re only three up. I’m disappointed about that but Monday will be another meeting and we will go again.”
He said he felt the decision to exclude Tigers’ Anders Rowe from heat 14 after a fall from Leicester’s Kyle Howarth at the first bend was the wrong decision, although he added Leicester boss Stewart Dickson may argue the other way as there was contact between the two.
He said: “Arguably, Anders was going for the racing line and had his nose in front. So it’s disappointing. That really hurt us because obviously it’s the difference between three and eight.”
Anders Rowe finished as Sheffield’s top scorer on the night with eight plus three bonus points.
He said: “We started off really well and a couple of decisions didn’t go my way. We’ve still got a thee point lead and we’ve got to carry on pushing at Leicester, progress as much as possible and get that win over.”
Rowe was surprised by his exclusion from heat 14 after Kyle Howarth’s tumble at the first corner of the race.
He told The Star: “I’ve made a good start off (gate) one, and me and Kyle touched going into the first turn. I’d gone up, and he’s obviously followed.
“I was about half a bike length in front at the time and he clipped my dirt deflector on the back. It’s one of those things, it’s a racing incident. It could have happened the opposite way round and it just shows all of us riders from either team want to be in those play-offs. I hope Kyle was OK.”
He admitted he was surprised “quite a lot” to be excluded for an incident on the first bend.
“It’s racing, “ he added. “it’s one of those things, and we’ve just got to come back stronger.”
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