DEPLETED Sheffield suffered a night to forget with a 63-28 defeat against high-flying Edinburgh in their League Cup semi-final first leg.
Tigers travelled to Armdale without the services of Ty Proctor and Josh Bates, and they were condemned to a heavyvdefeat against the record breaking Monarchs.
The Owlerton outfit claimed just one race win through Simon Stead whilst the home side recorded nine 5-1s on what was a forgettable night for the visitors.
The result leaves Sheffield in need of a heroic performance if they are to reach the League Cup Final when they host the second leg on June 19.
And team boss Joe Screen admitted he was bitterly disappointed with a below par display from his side which leaves their League Cup dreams in tatters.
Said Screen: "We were really disappointed, because that was a bit of an embarrassing result in the end.
"A lot of the lads struggled and had bad meetings, and overall it was just a really poor performance.
"It's hard for us with the number of rain-offs we've had, and it's been tough for the riders to get going.
"When we came up against a strong side like Edinburgh who have been riding regularly it was always going to be very difficult, but we didn't expect to get beat like that.
"It's a night to forget but we'll just have to try to put it behind us and move on to the next one."
Edinburgh 63: Steve Worrall 17+1, Justin Sedgmen 15+3, Craig Cook 14+1, Sam Masters 10+3, Derek Sneddon 6+1, Max Clegg 1, Max Fricke r/r
Sheffield 28: Simon Stead 10, Leigh Lanham 6+1, Andre Compton 6, Simon Nielsen 4, Taylor Poole 2+2, Ryan MacDonald 0, Ty Proctor r/r
