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| |  | BIRMINGHAM boss Laurence Rogers conceded his team were simply second best throughout their 54-36 defeat to Oxford at Perry Barr on Wednesday.
The Curtis Sport Brummies were beaten by an 18-point margin for a second successive home meeting on another desperately disappointing night for the Second City side.
Birmingham edged ahead early on when reserve Joe Thompson led a 4-2 in Heat Two - but the visitors suddenly opened up a six point advantage with back-to-back 5-1s.
The second of those saw Oxford capitalise in the re-run after captain Justin Sedgmen binned it on bend two after initially hitting the front.
That's when Rogers took everyone by surprise by sending his skipper straight back out as a tactical substitution, in a race where he was eligible for a rider replacement outing, against the top averaged rider in the league in Sam Masters who had taken the chequered flag untroubled in the opener.
Masters coasted to victory once again and the Brummies tactical opportunity was wasted with No.1 Nick Morris also now ineligible for a bonus ride.
And from there it was the visitors who kicked on in style with top two Scott Nicholls and Sam Masters only denied maximums in the final race of the night when Morris rounded off his birthday on a high as he produced a brilliant brave move to squeeze around the Oxford pairing off bend two.
It was another night to forget in the Cab Direct Championship for the struggling Brummies who were restricted to just two heat advantages and four race winners throughout the fixture.
"We were second best all the way through," said Rogers.
"We got off to a steady start in the first two heats but then Oxford put in a couple of 5-1s against us and we just didn't seem to have any oomph in us to do anything.
"We were six down after Heat Four, Nick had struggled a bit in his first one, Justin had just crashed out so from me it was a case of 'get back out there'.
"Justin is a good mate of his (Masters) and he's beaten him in the past, unfortunately it didn't work out on that occasion.
"Oxford then just kept pulling away from us and it was another disappointing performance.
"We're trying to prepare a track that suits the majority of the team but week-on-week it's the away team who are settling into it very quickly.
"Things have to change very quickly; we've been working on things behind the scenes for a few days now and hopefully we can get some things over the line in the next day or two and have something in place by the time we go to Oxford next week."
The Curtis Sport Brummies head to Oxford for the return next Wednesday (June 14, 7.30) - but first, it's a trip to Scunthorpe on Friday (June 9, 7.30) in the Knockout Cup.
CAB DIRECT CHAMPIONSHIP
BIRMINGHAM 36: Nick Morris 10+1, Connor Mountain 7+2, Justin Sedgmen 7, Alfie Bowtell 6+1, Joe Thompson 4+1, James Pearson 2, James Wright R/R.
OXFORD 54: Scott Nicholls 14, Sam Masters 12+2, Jordan Jenkins 8+3, Henry Atkins 8+2, Lewis Kerr 8, Cameron Heeps 4, Ryan Kinsley 0.
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