SHEFFIELD suffered Knockout Cup disaster at Birmingham on Wednesday as they crashed to a heavy first leg defeat.

Tigers are left needing a miracle to qualify for the next round after this result - and to add injury to insult, Josh Auty was forced to withdraw with bruising to his foot caused by a first-ride crash with home man Chris Kerr.

That was one of a host of problems to hit the Owlerton men with Ricky Ashworth, Paul Cooper and guest Paul Starke all suffering mechanical breakdowns within the first two races - and then Ashworth and Richard Hall hit the deck too in consecutive races.

Josef Franc led the fight with some fast gating taking him to two race wins, and Hugh Skidmore was the other Tiger to emerge with credit on the most trying of evenings.

BIRMINGHAM: Jason Lyons 14+1, Steve Johnston 10+4, Aaron Summers 10, Richard Sweetman 9+2, Chris Kerr 9, Justin Sedgmen 6+1, Jake Anderson 5+3.

SHEFFIELD: Josef Franc 10, Hugh Skidmore 6, Ricky Ashworth 3, Paul Cooper 3, Paul Starke 2+1, Richard Hall 1, Josh Auty 0.