GLASGOW captain Aaron Summers admitted his side let three points slip through their fingers when they fell to a last-gasp defeat at Newcastle tonight.

The Tigers found themselves nine points up after just five heats against the injury-hit Diamonds who started with just four of their original line-up.

But the home team gallantly fought back while Glasgow struggled to get out the starts - or to hold onto some points-scoring positions - to move three ahead by heat 14.

A 3-3 in heat 15 wasn't enough to reinstate the Tigers' lead and it ended up 46-43 to the home team.

Glasgow got one Premier League point for a defeat of fewer than seven points when they should - according to Summers - have had all four.

The Aussie said: "It's definitely points dropped. I didn't ride as well as I wanted to. Newcastle were quick and the track caught us out a little bit.

"It was just a tough night for us. It shouldn't have happened - we should have had all the points.

"We're sorry for our performance. I'm pretty ashamed of the way I rode and I'm sure some of the other boys are as well.

"I don't know if some of the track conditions put us off, but it fell apart half-way through. We weren't making starts either which didn't help."

However, the skipper vowed to put the result behind him and refocus on the aim of challenging for the title.

He said: "One point is better than nothing - it might just get us over the line when we need it. It's just a shame it wasn't the full three.

"We'll just put it behind us and we'll go onto the next one."

Glasgow thought that luck was on their side when they bagged an impressive 5-1 in the reserves' heat early on, before a fall and an engine failure gifted the visitors a 5-0 in heat four.

But in a tight meeting, the Diamonds made the most of what they had to pull back within three points by the heat 10 interval.

The key races came in heat 12, when Summers and Victor Palovaara were beaten out the traps by Steve Worrall and the super Diamonds reserve Lewis Rose, who coasted to a 5-1. The same result in heat 14 sent the home fans into raptures and pushed Glasgow's chances to the brink.

Nick Morris - beaten just one by a Newcastle rider all night - made the start in heat 15 and was gone, but Richard Lawson just couldn't catch Worrall, and that was enough for the Diamonds.

Glasgow now have a week off from league action before they face Sheffield and Plymouth away from home, then Scunthorpe visit the Peugeot Ashfield Stadium on June 7.

Tigers scorers: Nick Morris 14, Richard Lawson 9+1, Aaron Summers 7+1, Victor Palovaara 5, Max Clegg (guest) 4+2, Dimitri Berge 3+1, Kozza Smith 1.