Director of speedway Chris Louis admitted his side looked ‘more nervous than focused’ as they lost 48-42 at home to Somerset last night.

The Witches were second best from the gate at Foxhall and, with Nico Covatti (three) and James Sarjeant (four) failing to fire, they didn’t have enough to challenge a Somerset side led by 14 points from Australian number one Josh Grajczonek.

Louis was disappointed to start the home Premier League campaign with a lose, which he believes was in part down to nerves.

“It was how we started our League Cup campaign and that cost us a place in the semi-finals in my opinion,” said Louis.

“I’m very disappointed to start our Premier League campaign in the same manner. Again, like the Scunthorpe meeting though I don’t think we are second best at home against Somerset.

“You can pinpoint slight things like Nico crashing when that should have been a heat advantage, as it should be round the first turn. At the end of the day though as a team we seem more nervous still than focused and we need to switch that around and when we do I think we are a competitive side home and away but we have to re-group after tonight and go to Somerset.”

Louis struggled to find many positives from a disappointing night at Foxhall but says it is not down to a lack of effort from the team.

“Paco continued his slight improvement and Morten, racing wise, was good although we don’t want that at the expense of his starting ability which is generally his strong point.

“Lewis is still learning about the Jawa set-up and he needs to stop worrying about that and start focusing on what he does best and he did in the end with two race wins and he needs to carry that on and not have to wait one or two rides and I think he learnt a bit tonight.

“I can’t find any positives from tonight, it was a mismatch of a lack of focus and they are nervous.

“It’s not a lack of effort, I’m not knocking the team but they need to turn their nervous energy into focus which is difficult. When you talk to any sportsman it’s a fine line between negative nerves and positive nervous energy that you can focus and they’re not managing to do that at the moment. “Thankfully with Danny’s last turn effort we’ve managed to stop them taking full points. It doesn’t mean we get anything but ultimately if its them we are battling with at the end of the year that point might be handy.”