SHEFFIELD boss Simon Stead admitted they badly missed injured No.1 Tai Woffinden during Monday’s 53-37 defeat at Peterborough.

The triple World Champion was ruled out of the contest at the East of England Arena having crashed out of Saturday’s Speedway Grand Prix of Great Britain, sustaining a hand injury in the process.

The Tru Plant Tigers operated rider replacement in his absence which delivered just five points in total.

The Owlerton outfit managed just four race wins at Alwalton, three from Tobiasz Musielak and one from Kyle Howarth - and Stead admits the hosts were deserved winners.

“We were beaten by the better team and sometimes you have to hold your hands up and say we weren’t good enough,” he said.

“We were missing the brilliance of Tai Woffinden; the display he put on last time he was here could’ve made all the difference.

“But he wasn’t here and we weren’t able to cover him and we suffered for that.

“Fair play to Rob (Lyon - Peterborough team manager) and his boys thought they got the job done and we now need to regroup and produce a better performance on Thursday.”

The Tigers are back in home action on Thursday (September 7, 7.30) when they host Wolverhampton.

PETERBOROUGH 53: Benjamin Basso 12, Ben Cook 10+1, Chris Harris 9+2, Jordan Jenkins 9+2, Vadim Tarasenko 7+1, Artem Laguta 6, Niels-Kristian Iversen r/r.
SHEFFIELD 37: Tobiasz Musielak 16, Josh Pickering 9+1, Kyle Howarth 6+1, Chris Holder 5+3, Claus Vissing 1, Jason Edwards 0, Tai Woffinden r/r.
Peterborough win the aggregate point