SHEFFIELD co-promoter Damien Bates says he was proud of his side despite seeing them suffer a 53-37 defeat at Peterborough.

24 hours after seeing their League Cup dreams ended at the hands of Glasgow, the injury-hit Window Centre Tigers were unable to add to their Premier League points tally at the East of England Showground.

Bates has revealed how they only reluctantly agreed to the date to take on the high-flying Panthers in the re-arranged clash.

Having also seen young reserve Josh Bates taken ill early in the meeting, the already depleted Owlerton outfit were always set to face a tough task.

Guest Eddie Kennett and Jason Garrity put in superb displays, wrapping up the evening with a 5-1 in heat 15, whilst Aussie ace Arthur Sissis fought hard for his 5+1 points at reserve.

Co-promoter Bates admitted their troubles finally caught up with them on a tough night – but he was nonetheless proud of the effort shown by his side.

Bates commented: “We have been going into meetings patched up for a while now, and relying on guests is never ideal. Tonight all the problems we’ve been having just caught up with us, which was always going to happen sooner or later unfortunately.

“We did ourselves proud, all the lads gave it everything and we can’t ask for any more than that. Eddie Kennett was a great guest, Jason Garrity was absolutely fantastic again and Arthur Sissis rode a lot better than his points suggest.

“Peterborough are a strong side, and they had a great guest in Nicklas Porsing, and we had a few other things go against us as well which just cost us.

“We never really wanted to agree to this date in the first place because of the other Premier League fixtures limiting our choice of guests, but we didn’t have too much choice in the end.

“On top of that we had Josh (Bates) who has been ill for the last two days being sick in between his rides, and everything just caught up with us.

“He (Josh) wanted to ride but he was taken ill after his first two rides, and then he managed to get back out there but he was still coming in and throwing up in between races.

“Things went against us tonight, but you can’t win them all and the boys tried their hardest which is all they can do.”

PETERBOROUGH 53: Ulrich Ostergaard 12, Nicklas Porsing 12, Simon Lambert 10+3, Michael Palm Toft 8+3, Emil Grondal 8+1, Rafal Konopka 3, Robert Lambert r/r.

SHEFFIELD 37: Edward Kennett 13, Jason Garrity 9+1, Arthur Sissis 5+1, Kevin Doolan 4, David Bellego 4, Josh Bates 2, Ashley Birks r/r.