PARRYS International Wolves suffered last gasp heartache as they slipped to a 46-44 defeat against local rivals Birmingham at Perry Barr.
Having trailed for large parts of the meeting, Wolverhampton struck a magnificent maximum through Joe Jacobs and Ty Proctor in heat 14 to bring themselves back onto level terms and set up a mouth-watering last heat decider.
Yet the unstoppable Danny King flew from the gate to take victory - and despite the best efforts of Piotr Pawlicki and Ricky Wells they could not prevent former Wolves man Daniel Nermark from taking the third place required to condemn the visitors to a narrow defeat.
After a tough start, Polish ace Pawlicki soon got to grips with the Perry Barr circuit to impress for Wolves whilst Wells also enjoyed an excellent evening as he makes the transition to the heat-leader role.
A solid showing from Ty Proctor and a superb performance from Joe Jacobs at reserve left the Monmore men in a strong position as they searched for a vital away win - yet disappointing evenings for Tai Woffinden, Jacob Thorssell and Ashley Morris left them agonisingly short.
Just five race winners saw Wolves lack the firepower required to edge their neighbours - and skipper Tai Woffinden admitted he was disappointed following a below par evening.
Yet he was keen to think positively after his side added to their Elite League points tally with a consolation point.
Said Woffinden: "It was a tough night, and I personally struggled after making a mistake with the setup.
"A few of the boys had some issues and it was a shame we couldn't come away with a win.
"At least we came away with a point for our efforts, and now we've just got to look at pushing forward in the future to keep improving."
BIRMINGHAM 46: Danny King 15, Daniel Nermark 10, Paul Starke 8+2, Adam Skornicki 7, Nico Covatti 3, Ben Barker 2, Simon Lambert 1.
WOLVERHAMPTON 44: Piotr Pawlicki 9+1, Ricky Wells 8+1, Joe Jacobs 7+1, Tai Woffinden 6+1, Ty Proctor 6+1, Ashley Morris 4+1, Jacob Thorssell 4.
It sounds simple, but sometimes we can all forget to step back and look after our own wellbeing.
