SHEFFIELD Tigers took a massive step towards the Premier League play-offs with a thrilling 50-43 win over Somerset at Owlerton on Thursday.

And whilst the result doesn’t mathematically secure their place in the top four, it will now take a massive turnaround for the Sheffield Window Centre-backed side to miss out.

They had to do it the hard way on a thrilling night of racing with Somerset good value for entertainment and it was the visitors who went ahead early on.

Richard Hall teamed up with Josef Franc, who had recovered from an opening race crash, to hand Tigers the lead for the first time in the meeting after five heats.

And whilst Somerset were able to hang on in there, a maximum 5-1 in Heat 10 proved to be the defining race for Sheffield with Josh Auty just edging a fine race alongside Hugh Skidmore to hand them a useful 34-26 lead.

But there was still work for Tigers to do when Shane Parker was nominated for a tactical ride in Heat 13 after Sheffield had built up a 41-31 lead.

Thankfully for the home side Auty and Ricky Ashworth were able to score points behind Parker which put the match beyond Somerset despite their brave efforts.

Richard Hall’s Heat 14 win was enough to make sure of victory for Tigers and his second place in the last heat handed them maximum points in an outstanding race which saw Ashworth pull up with bike problems.

SHEFFIELD: Richard Hall 11+1, Ricky Ashworth 10+1, Hugh Skidmore 8+2, Josh Auty 8+1, Josef Franc 7+1, Simon Lambert 4+1, Lubos Tomicek 2.

SOMERSET: Shane Parker 15, Sam Masters 9+1, James Holder 8+1, Christian Hefenbrock 5, Ritchie Hawkins 4, Cory Gathercole 2+1, Kyle Howarth 0.