PROMOTER Damien Bates praised his side’s team spirit after they pulled off a stunning win at Redcar to reach the Premier League Cup semi-finals.

Tigers won 53-37 to take the four points they needed to squeeze ahead of the Bears - who had only lost by two at Owlerton 24 hours earlier – in their group table.

Sheffield now await their opponents in the last four shootout - but Bates says the team won’t fear anyone.

“It was a fantastic performance and I’m so proud of them,” he said.

“They were strong from 1-7 and the spirit is so good in the camp after this week that we’ll take anyone on.”

Young Josh Bates capped a memorable week by scorching to 13 points, with three wins, including two in the last two heats to make certain Sheffield bagged the points they needed.

Added Damien: “Josh was incredible. His confidence is so high after he won the British U21 Final earlier in the week and we had no worries about putting him in the last race with Taylor Poole, who was also top class.”

Skipper Simon Stead and Simon Nielsen shot Sheffield into the lead with a confidence-boosting 5-1 in the opener and they never looked back.

Bears did clamber to within two points after eight heats but when Adam Roynon and Andre Compton bagged another maximum in the ninth,

Tigers were on target and then successive 5-1s from star man Bates and rejuvenated Poole in the last two races put the icing on the cake.

REDCAR: J. Graversen 12, A. Summers 10+2, K. Doolan 7, C. Wilkinson 6, L. Crang 1, R. Konopka 1, H. Skidmore 0

TIGERS: J. Bates 13, S. Stead 11, T. Poole 7+3, A. Roynon 7, L. Lanham 6, A. Compton 5, S. Nielsen 4+2.