Wolverhampton suffer home defeat despite Tai Woffinden's best efforts
Misfiring Wolverhampton slumped to their first home defeat of the season at the hands of table-toppers King's Lynn, writes Rich Jones.
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A spectacular performance from Tai Woffinden was not enough to prevent his side from slipping to a 53-37 loss on a disappointing night.
The world champion was in inspired form fresh off the back of his British Final win last week, storming to four race wins from his five outings.
Yet he received minimal support from the remainder of the side, as Peter Adams' men were simply outclassed by a rampant King's Lynn.
Said Woffinden: "It was a tough night for us – we should have really won being at home but that's just the way it goes sometimes.
"I don't think all the boys were scoring the points they needed to, and against a strong side like King's Lynn that's what happens.
"It would have been nice to get the win as it would have put us third in the table, but there isn't anything we can do about it now.
"We've just got to put it behind us, put it down to a bad night and just look to move on as quickly as possible."
Wolves fought hard early on, with two wins for Woffinden backed up by impressive victories for Ricky Wells and Ty Proctor to give them a two point lead after five heats.
However, the same Proctor-Wells partnership conceded two 5-1s in quick succession to see the hosts fall six behind.
A classy win for Woffinden in heat ten moved them back within four and set up a nervy finale.
But Wolves collapsed late on – conceding three consecutive 5-1s to leave then in disarray.
Woffinden did claim a classy win in heat 15 to help limit the damage, but it was too little too late as his side slipped to defeat.
Ty Proctor and Ricky Wells both faded after bright starts, whilst Swede Jacob Thorssell proved solid yet unspectacular.
Meanwhile, Polish hotshot Piotr Pawlcki experienced a rare off night having previously been in blistering form.
He did push Stars No.1 Niels-Kristian Iversen hard in perhaps the race of the night before being forced to settle for second place in heat 11. But he also seized an engine in his second ride and eventually managed only three points leaving Woffinden desperately short of support from the other heat-leader berths.
Wolverhampton: Tai Woffinden 13, Ricky Wells 6+1, Jacob Thorssell 6, Ty Proctor 4, Piotr Pawlicki 3, Tom Perry 3, Joe Jacobs 2+1.
King's Lynn: Lewis Blackbird 12+2, Niels-Kristian Iversen 10+1, Rory Schlein 10+1, Max Fricke 8+2, Robert Lambert 6+1, Kenneth Bjerre 5+1, Lewis Rose 2+1.
