Speedway: King's Lynn Stars out of Knockout Cup after Sheffield defeat
Team Manager Alex Brady has described the performance as "gutless"
King's Lynn Stars are out of speedway's Knockout Cup after a 56-34 defeat at the hands of Sheffield.
Stars were unable to overturn a 26 point deficit from the first round and were hampered by the absense of skipper Josh Pickering, who's out injured.
Krzysztof Kasprzak put in the strongest appearance last night, winning his third and fourth rides.
Team manager Alex Brady said: “Preparation was good today, the riders on track walk were saying it was the perfect track, and it’s difficult to put into words exactly how I’m feeling.
“I apologise to everyone who came and to summarise the one word I’d use is gutless. There were a couple of decent performances but beyond that it was pathetic.
“I’m not afraid to pull my punches, I let the riders know my feelings during the meeting and I’ve let them know again in the changing rooms afterwards.
“All I can say is I hope they can produce a reaction, because we seriously need one. We knew it would be tough to qualify because we didn’t do ourselves justice away, but the expectation was to come here and win, and run it as close as we could, and even from Heat 1 onwards we weren’t in contention.
“You can’t ride the way we rode tonight and expect to win, it’s that simple, and some people need a wake-up call very quickly.”
Stars are next in action in the Premiership on Thursday, when they head to Leicester.
Craig Cook and Steve Worrall will guest in place of Josh Pickering and Krzysztof Kasprzak respectively.
SCORES:
KING’S LYNN 34: Krzysztof Kasprzak 9+1, Thomas Jorgensen 8+1, Frederik Jakobsen 5, Simon Lambert 4+1, Michael Palm Toft 4, Nicolai Klindt 3+1, Jason Edwards 1.
SHEFFIELD 56: Jack Holder 14+1, Richard Lawson 11+1, Kyle Howarth 9+1, Lewis Kerr 7+2, Adam Ellis 7+1, Dan Gilkes 5, David Bellego 3.
Sheffield win 114-66 on aggregate