LAKESIDE Hammers promoters, Stuart Douglas and Jon Cook, have expressed their disappointment at the elimination of the Hammers from the Elite League Play Offs at the semi final stage following their defeat to Wolverhampton on Monday evening.

LAKESIDE Hammers promoters, Stuart Douglas and Jon Cook, have expressed their disappointment at the elimination of the Hammers from the Elite League Play Offs at the semi final stage following their defeat to Wolverhampton on Monday evening.

"With the benefit of hindsight, letting the heart rule the head when it came to team changes in August was perhaps the wrong decision, but there is no point bleating on about it now," said Jon Cook.

"Stuart and I are bitterly disappointed - we both felt very positive about our chances - but we still have a very prestigious trophy to win this season, and our job is to move forward and re-motivate the riders to prove that we weren't wrong in our team selection and to win the Cup."

Stuart Douglas was quick to praise the opposition by stating: "Whilst I felt we didn't do ourselves justice, one or two riders excepted, it's important to acknowledge that we were beaten by an extremely strong Wolves team. Missing their talisman figure of Peter Karlsson, and with their number 1, Fredrik Lindgren, not on top form, you have to give credit to their second strings who really bagged this meeting for them. We will learn from this, for sure."

Calling on his many years' experience in the sport, Cook felt a perspective has to be applied to the disappointment. "In the three years that we have been at this Club, we have finished 5th, 2nd, and 3rd respectively in the Elite League. That is pretty consistent given the Club's previous placings at the foot of the table. It shows we are moving in the right direction, and, obviously, we will be looking to make that final step and finish top, if not next year, then as soon as we possibly can."

The next action for the Hammers at the Arena-Essex Raceway will be on Friday 9th October when they stage the 1st leg of the Elite League Knockout Cup Final.

At present their opponents are not known as the Belle Vue Aces and the Coventry Bees have still to meet in the 2nd leg of their Semi Final.

That is scheduled to take place at the Aces track in Manchester on Monday.