COVENTRY Storm’s final two home matches of the National League season will now be vital – after they came away from Kent point-less on Monday.
The Storm went down to a 54-39 defeat at Central Park with the Kings making a mockery of apparent injury setbacks they had suffered in their heavy loss at Buxton the previous day.
Joe Jacobs was left on his own at the top of the Coventry scorechart as he won three of his six races, losing out only to the Kings’ impeccable No.1 Steve Boxall – but there were a host of problems for his team-mates.
Skipper James Sarjeant was twice penalised for tapes offences, and Oliver Greenwood suffered two falls as the Storm struggled to remain in contention for at least a point.
Jacobs’ tactical ride win in Heat 11 was backed up by a 4-2 in the next race as Greenwood got the better of David Mason, and at that stage the Storm were nine-down and could have salvaged something from the meeting.
But a 4-2 to Kent in Heat 13 put them back in full control and when Greenwood was disqualified from the penultimate race for bringing down Adam Kirby maximum points were in the bag for the hosts.
Coventry’s play-off chase is far from over – indeed, they still have points on the board which others have to catch-up on – but the result makes Friday’s Brandon showdown with King’s Lynn and 15-year-old sensation Robert Lambert even more important.
Co-boss Blayne Scroggins said: “It was a disappointing night. We just weren’t at the races, and really only Joe Jacobs was at his best.
“We weren’t gating, the track was slick and there was no passing, but they were the best team on the night and there are no excuses from us.
“The boys are down about it of course, but we can still make the play-offs and we’ll get everyone together on Friday and make sure they all know what we have to do.â€
KENT 54: Steve Boxall 15, Ben Morley 9, Connor Coles 8+2, Adam Kirby 7+3, David Mason 7, Benji Compton 6, Jack Kingston 2+1.
COVENTRY 39: Joe Jacobs 18, Oliver Greenwood 5+2, James Sarjeant 5, Luke Crang 4, James Shanes 4, Martin Knuckey 3+2, Robert Branford R/R.
KENT 54 Steve Boxall 3 3 3 3 3 = 15 Connor Coles 1 2* 3 2* F = 8+2 David Mason 2 2 1 2 = 7 Benji Compton M R 3 3 = 6 Ben Morley 3 3 2 1 = 9 Adam Kirby 3 1* 0 1* 2* = 7+3 Jack Kingston X 2* R 0 = 2+1
COVENTRY 39 Joe Jacobs 2 3 3 6^ 2 2 = 18 Luke Crang 0 1 2 1 0 = 4 Robert Branford Rider Replacement Oliver Greenwood 0 1* R 3 X 1* = 5+2 James Sarjeant 1 X 2 2 0 = 5 James Shanes 2 1 0 1 = 4 Martin Knuckey 1* 0 1* 1 = 3+2
