SHEFFIELD boss Simon Stead admits his side never recovered from the early loss of Zaine Kennedy as they suffered a 55-35 defeat at Scunthorpe.
Tigers’ Aussie reserve crashed heavily into the home straight fence in Heat Two and was taken to hospital with suspected broken ribs.
That was just the start of a difficult night all-round for the Owlerton outfit who had to wait until Heat Nine to register a race win courtesy of No.1 Danny King - in what turned out to be their only heat advantage of the clash.
But Tigers are also hoping a day of rest will be good enough for King, ahead of Sunday’s Championship Fours at Peterborough (2pm), who left the Eddie Wright Raceway feeling the effects of a knock to the leg.
Team manager Stead said: “I know we can’t really use it as an excuse but the early loss of Zaine really did knock us for six.
“We struggled in too many areas to cover for him and it was a really bad night at the office.
“We know we need to do better, but on this occasion people should take nothing away from Scunthorpe who were up for it from the get go.
“Fingers crossed the news with Zaine isn’t too bad and we’ll see how Danny is feeling tomorrow (Saturday).
“Had there been points on the line I know he’d have gone out there and done his bit for the team; but it did enable me to hand Josh MacDonald his first ever Heat 15 and to be honest he probably deserved it.
“He’s shown plenty of encouraging signs since he came into the team, including a race win and a solid paid second in that Heat 15 tonight, and he’s proving to be an astute signing already.
“We know that wasn’t good enough though and one way or another things need to improve - in the meantime we keep our fingers crossed for both Zaine and Danny and then we turn our attentions to Sunday’s Fours.”
SCUNTHORPE 55: Josh Auty 13, Tero Aarnio 11, Danny Ayres 9+1, Ryan Douglas 8, Alfie Bowtell 7+3, Stefan Nielsen 5+1, Ryan Kinsley 2.
SHEFFIELD 35: Danny King 11, Kyle Howarth 9+1, Josh MacDonald 8+2, Broc Nicol 5, Ty Proctor 3+1, Drew Kemp 0, Zaine Kennedy 0.
