PREMIER League title hopefuls Sheffield suffered their first setback of the season with a 48-43 defeat at Newcastle.

The latter half of the match saw Sheffield bounce back to give themselves a great chance of securing the aggregate bonus point when the sides meet again at Owlerton on Thursday.

Initially it looked like Sheffield were going down to a fairly mundane away defeat at Newcastle on Sunday’s match at the Newcastle Stadium, but some heroic battling from Ricky Ashworth, Ben Wilson, Andre Compton and Paul Cooper in the later stages of the meeting ensured a pretty respectable outcome.

Compton’s tactical ride in heat 11 was looking like a good 1-8, but Newcastle’s 17 year-old Dane, Jonas Raun, has no respect for experience as he went hard round Compton on the second lap making the heat result a 2-5, and the match score 37-30.

Heat 12 gave the Tigers a 2-4 with a fine win for Ashworth over Josef Franc taking the Tigers to only five-points behind, but a Newcastle 5-1 in the 13th sealed the match for the home side despite an excellent 1-5 from Tigers duo Wilson and Cooper who deserved their fans' adoration from the terraces.

Ashworth finished off a fine night’s racing by winning the final heat with an amazing move to dart between the leading Diamonds pair of Raun and Christian Henry who could do nothing to halt Ashworth’s zig-zag swoop off bend two for three-points thanks to the pass of the night.

NEWCASTLE: Jonas Raun 13+1, Christian Henry 12, Carl Wilkinson 9+1, Josef Franc 8, Ross Brady 5, Sean Stoddart 2, Ashley Johnson 1+1.

SHEFFIELD: Ricky Ashworth 12, Ben Wilson 9, Paul Cooper 8+3, Andre Compton 7, Joel Parsons 6, James Cockle 1, James Birkinshaw R/R.