TIGERS chief Simon Stead admitted that he was left “speechless” after a crushing home defeat to Redcar.

For the third successive week the home side were left reeling at Owlerton by visitors incredibly sharp from the gate.

This time the Bears followed Lakeside and Scunthorpe with a clinical lesson out of the tapes to win 52-38.

It was always going to be a mountain to climb after the Teessiders romped to successive 5-1s in the opening two heats.

But any hopes of a fightback were thwarted by an outstanding all round performance from the Bears who had the outstanding riders of the night in former Tiger Dimitri Berge while Thomas Jorgensen was also excellent.

Stead said: “Redcar were just brilliant out of the starts. Everyone is totally gutted and we’ve got to try and pick ourselves up. I’ve been left speechless to be honest.

“We can’t quite work out where it has gone wrong. Since the Championship Pairs when Kyle (Howarth) and Charles (Wright) won everything has gone wrong.

“I thought that would be the springboard for a real late season push to the Play-Offs but it’s just not been happening for us at all.

“We will keep fighting for the fans. Everyone at the club is working so hard to get it right and it’s frustrating to say the least. After a couple of hugely-successive seasons we are in unfamiliar territory of struggling.

“We now have to get ourselves going for Redcar on Friday night and Workington on Saturday before Newcastle at Owlerton next week. It’s a massive week for us now.”

SHEFFIELD 38: Kyle Howarth 11, Charles Wright 8, Broc Nicol 7+1, Lasse Bjerre 5+1, Todd Kurtz 4+1, James Shanes 3+2, Joe Lawlor 0.

REDCAR 52: Dimitri Berge 13, Thomas Jorgensen 10+1, Ben Barker 9, Nike Lunna 7+3, Jordan Stewart 6, Jonas B Andersen 4+2, Mikkel B Andersen 3+1.