TEAM boss Cami Brown admits there’s “no room for error” ahead of two crunch ties with Berwick.
The Allied Vehicles Tigers and Jewson Bandits clash at Ashfield Stadium tonight (Friday) in the Cab Direct Championship.
Then it’s the return fixture at Shielfield Park on Saturday and Brown says his league champions have to step up their game.
He said: “The target remains the same. We need to get into that top four and go again in the play-offs.
“However this is a tough league this year, it’s very even and plenty of teams are good enough to ensure we don’t make the cut.
“There’s no room for error, that’s for sure. We have to stay strong at Ashfield, win bonus points and pick a couple of wins up on the road.
“The season is now almost halfway through so we need to get going. That starts this weekend with Berwick home and away in 48 hours.
“But the overall patchy nature of our scoring has to be eliminated.
“The results at Edinburgh and Redcar were just not good enough.
“In truth, we just didn’t compete enough. Too many of the boys were inconsistent, there were too many last places. Ultimately this club doesn’t accept second best.
“We want to be competing for trophies. We are the reigning league champions and we want to be in the mix to retain the title we worked so damn hard to win.
“It’s certainly not all doom and gloom. There are positives with Chris Harris always showing the way forward. James Pearson was unlucky at Redcar with a broken chain which caused his opening ride crash when in a point-scoring position. Jack Smith has also come in and done his job at reserve.
“Personally I’m delighted to see Leon Flint starting to show great progress. He’s understandably taken some time to settle but the scoring is really becoming stronger.
“It was also pleasing to see him qualify for the SGP2 and then really mix it with the best young riders in the world in Malilla last weekend. That will do him the power of good. He’s a huge prospect and he’s starting to deliver.”