TIGERS boss Simon Stead hailed the “fighting spirit” of his side after their narrow defeat at high-flying Workington.
Despite another slow start to the meeting, the visitors grabbed a point after a last-gasp flurry of heat advantages in the rain at Derwent Park.
Eventually Tigers went down 47-43 but team chief Stead was encouraged by signs that confidence is returning to the team.
He said: “Workington are a very good team and it took us a while to get into the meeting. To be fair, we were up against it in the early stages.
“As a collective, the boys are lacking in confidence and it was hard once Workington had got into a big lead.
“But there were positives. I’ve been really happy with the work ethic and spirit of the boys. They are all putting in 100 per cent for the club.
“They all want to win, they all need to earn money and are giving in their all. The good thing is that there are signs of the confidence returning.
“Charles (Wright) was outstanding and Kyle (Howarth) was also excellent. We just need to get more consistency from the other boys. But at least we didn’t throw in the towel, they kept going at it and got a well deserved point in difficult conditions.
“We’ve got Newcastle on Thursday night at Owlerton and that’s a big one for us to get us back on track with a home win.”
Comets ripped into an early 17-7 lead and comfortably 14 points up at Heat 7. But a tactical substitute 5-1 from Wright and Howarth in Heat 9 got Tigers back in the hunt.
As conditions deteriorated in the rain, the home side wrapped it up with a maximum in Heat 12. But the visitors produced three successive heat advantages in the last three heats to secure what was an unlikely point.
