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| |  | BIRMINGHAM co-owner Nigel Tolley says he is far from worried despite suffering an opening night defeat at Perry Barr.
The Curtis Sport Brummies were beaten 49-41 by Scunthorpe in the BSN Series Northern Group in what was their first team fixture of the season following rain-offs against Coventry and Redcar last week.
The night got off to an edgy start when winter signing Alfie Bowtell was disqualified for twice moving on the start line ahead of Heat One.
But reserve replacement Ty Proctor picked up a solid third place point while new No.1 Nick Morris took the chequered flag in a 4-2.
The visitors got their noses in front with a 5-1 in Heat Two though before opening up a six point lead by Heat Eight.
The Brummies headed into the interval on a high though when Morris produced a quality piece of team riding to protect Bowtell round as they bagged their first 5-1 of the season in Heat Ten to move back to within two.
But Scunthorpe pulled off four 4-2s in the final five races to secure an eight point victory.
Said Tolley: "Of course we didn't want to lose but it's important to remember that this is our first meeting.
"If last Wednesday had have gone ahead, we'd have had a Challenge and some competitive laps as a team under our belts and we'd have come into this one a lot stronger.
"That wasn't the case unfortunately and some of our riders are still a little bit rusty which is totally understandable at this stage.
"The heat results may not have gone our way, but the more the night went on, I felt you could see a difference with the way they were riding and the way they were attacking it and it will come.
"It's now a matter of putting this one behind us, getting rid of any race rustiness and taking the positives with us.
"I'm not unduly worried at all because there were promising signs along the way and we'll get there the more meetings we have."
The two sides meet again at the Eddie Wright Raceway on Friday night (April 21, 7.30) with Redcar the visitors to Perry Barr next Wednesday (April 26, 7.30).
BIRMINGHAM 41: Nick Morris 12+1, Paco Castagna 10, Justin Sedgmen 7, James Pearson 6, Alfie Bowtell 4, Stefan Nielsen 1+1, Ty Proctor 1.
SCUNTHORPE 49: Ryan Douglas 12, Michael Palm Toft 11, Jake Allen 8, Joe Thompson 5+1, Connor Mountain 5+1, Simon Lambert 5, Jason Edwards 3.
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