GLASGOW captain Aaron Summers bemoaned his side’s luck as two shed chains cost them a place in the Premier League grand final.
The Tigers are out of the title race after an aggregate defeat of just two points against Sheffield Tigers following the second leg of their play-off semi-final tonight.
Glasgow won 48-42 on the night but it wasn’t enough to overturn the eight-point deficit from Wednesday.
However, they’d have been eyeing up a final showdown with Somerset had Nike Lunna in the first leg and then Richard Lawson in the second leg not packed up in scoring positions due to their chains snapping.
Summers said: “It’s devastating, but you can’t point the finger at anyone. We should’ve maybe been a bit closer after the first leg but Nike lost a chain yesterday in a scoring position and Rich lost a back chain tonight.
“It’s little things like that which can cost you. Had we not had those two, we’d have been through.
“With the way we started, though, we shouldn’t have ended up where we were – we started so strong and then it fell apart a bit. It’s gutting, really.”
The home team looked set to stride into the final as they pulled 10 clear – two on aggregate – after just four races of tonight’s meeting.
But when the visitors bagged a 5-1 in heat eight to go four ahead overall, Glasgow never managed to wrestle it back.
And when Coty Garcia crashed out of the penultimate race, the hosts needed to get maximum points from the last two to force it to golden heats.
Rene Bach delivered in heat 14, but then Kyle Howarth split the pairing of Summers and Lawson to give Sheffield an unlikely victory.
Summers said: “Me and Richard made a plan, there was no point in one of us sailing away out in front. I was trying to slow Kyle down but Rich was maybe a little bit too far back and Kyle knew what I was doing as well.
“It made it really hard.”
The Tigers now face Edinburgh tomorrow night to complete their league fixtures, before turning their attentions to Sunday’s KO Cup final first leg.
The return is at the Peugeot Ashfield Stadium on Monday at 7.30pm – which will be the final meeting held there this season.
The Glasgow skipper added: “Tomorrow needs to be a meeting where the boys bounce back and put us in form for Sunday and Monday’s meetings.
“I wanted all three trophies, but there’s only one more to fight for now and it’s our last two meetings, so we’ve got to go all out for them.”
It’s unlikely that Garcia will play any part in the remaining fixtures after he suffered a leg injury and was taken to hospital after heat 14.
Tigers scorers: Aaron Summers 14, Richard Lawson 11, Richie Worrall 9, Rene Bach 7+2, Nike Lunna 3+1, Danny Ayres 3, Coty Garcia 1+1.