GARY Havelock admits his Coventry team need to get back to winning ways to stay in the Elite League play-off chase as they suffered a night to forget going down 36-55 at Swindon on Monday night, writes Observer speedway reporter Robin Allen.
The Bees could have no complaints about the overall outcome as the Robins were faster from the starts for much of the evening and dominated the match.
Between Heats four and ten, the home side carded four 5-1s and two 4-2s, and that left Bees with far too much to do even though they appeared to find the key to conditions late on.
Skipper Chris Harris and British Champion Danny King both gave battling performances to hit double figures, but Krzysztof Kasprzak, who had been so impressive in recent away matches at King’s Lynn and Leicester, endured a torrid night and wound up with just one point to his name.
“There aren’t really many printable words I can say, because it was a terrible night for us, said Havelock “I’m not saying we weren’t trying, I would never publicly put the riders down – they were trying but getting nowhere, and we just weren’t gating.
“Right from early on I could tell (the referee) was whacking the start button quite quickly, and I kept telling the boys to remember it was ‘one-two-go’ but what can you do?
“We have to move on, win all our home matches and probably a couple more away if we’re going to scrape in.”
Despite conceding a 5-1 in Heat one, Bees appeared to be in touch early on with Josh Bates a controlled winner of Heat two although Kacper Woryna lost out to Stefan Nielsen for third place.
The performances of Swindon second-strings Justin Sedgmen and Rohan Tungate were a constant problem for the Bees, and one they never truly got to grips with.
The next three races saw Bees concede by a 13-5 margin with Bates crashing on the last bend of Heat five, and it left them utilising a tactical ride in Heat eight.
King went for double but was initially delayed by Nielsen, and after establishing himself in second place he was unable to catch Sedgmen.
Two more Swindon 5-1s immediately followed as the home side locked up the points, and although Bees edged the scoring in the final third of the meeting it was nowhere near enough.
King and Harris pulled off a fine 5-1 over Doyle in Heat 11, whilst Woryna took the second reserves’ race in a 3-2 as Bates ground to a halt with Charles Wright having already crashed out.
Harris split Doyle and Grajczonek in Heat 13 and a Bees 4-2 followed in the next with King up front and Sarjeant holding a fine third place over Sedgmen, underlining what could be achieved with a good start.
Sedgmen then duly flew from the gate to win Heat 15 ahead of a frantic scrap for second place with Harris edging out Nick Morris by re-passing him into the final bend.
