TIGERS trump card James Shanes has revealed he’s seen a sports psychologist to make him a stronger sportsman.

The diminutive Dorchester dynamo raked in paid 21 points in the home win over Glasgow and away defeat at Newcastle on Sunday evening.

Now Shanes, 21, has admitted he’s seen a sports shrink on the eve Tigers tricky home test against Scunthorpe tonight (Thursday).

He revealed: “A psychologist is the way of modern sports now. Being dropped from my top flight team Poole really knocked me sideways. I thought I was safe at Poole and to get the phone call out of the blue was a massive shock and not being given an explanation why was more of a shock.

“Oddly the experience will make me a stronger person. I feel like I’ve come out the other side of it and I can help other people who are going through the same shock and feelings that I had.

“The psychologist spoke about a lot of structure in my thinking. A lot of it is about self-belief. I was going through a stage of not being bothered to do anything.

“I woke up in the morning and told myself ‘I can’t be a***d’, I’ll do it tomorrow. My mindset was putting me in the wrong situations, wrong headspace.

“The self-belief was the starting point and getting me back onto the straight and narrow and a path where I needed to be and it has worked.”

Tigers mid-season team re-shuffle was an instant success with the huge home win over Glasgow and a brilliant home debut for colourful American Broc Nicol.

But they’ve since had the huge setback of losing Kyle Howarth with a broken collarbone. Flying exciting Aussie Ty Proctor takes his place against the Scorpions at Owlerton tonight and Shanes says the team must kick on now for the play-offs.

He added: “We are just focused on making that top four and defending the league championship. But for now make the play-offs and that’s part one of the job done.

“Scunthorpe are a tough side and have track specialists so we’ll have to be on top form again like we were against Glasgow.”

Scunny’s Jason Garrity won the British Championship semi-final with a maximum at Owlerton earlier this season and the Scorpions have a solid look and strength in depth.

SHEFFIELD: Ty Proctor, Todd Kurtz, Lasse Bjerre, Broc Nicol, Charles Wright, Georgie Wood, James Shanes.

SCUNTHORPE: Steve Worrall R/R, Dimitri Berge, Josh Auty, Jake Allen, Jason Garrity, Danny Phillips, Gino Manzares.