Jon Cook today challenged his Eastbourne Eagles to prove they can cope without David Norris.

Eagles suffered their first Arlington defeat since May as Coventry Bees won 51-42 on Saturday night to complete a home and away double.

Cook, the Eagles promoter, admits his men could struggle to cling on to an 11-point advantage for the bonus point tonight when they visit recently reinforced Peterborough.

He is desperate for his team to be in a position to challenge for second place, and a home play-off, when Norris' recovery period from a recent concussion is completed.

Eagles have a handy week-long break in their schedule after tonight's trip to the Showground but it gets hectic after that, starting with Peterborough's return to Arlington for a B fixture in front of the Sky cameras next Monday.

Cook said: "We can't rush David back but our season is depending on him.

"I don't want to have to go down to Poole and get beaten in the play-offs.

"I want us to finish in the top two.

"Our riders have been racing this track long enough to be able to do a job.

"There are no excuses to be made.

"Everybody has to take a hard look at themselves, including me. We've got our backs to the wall to try and scramble a bonus point at Peterborough.

"All it means though is we have got a lot of excitement to come."

They are certainly open and honest at Arlington. Cook's assessment that Eagles were "bloody awful" was made over the public address system near the end of the meeting.

So too was a request for Eagles back-up rider Ulrich Ostergaard to report to the pits shortly after struggling Steen Jensen had gone scoreless in three rides and had his fourth taken off him.

But Cook insists the team will be unchanged tonight.

He was right to say there were no excuses. Coventry, the only Elite League team winning away matches with any regularity this summer, were also short-handed.

Grand Prix star Andreas Jonsson was well and truly ruled out by a combination of stress, fatigue, illness and injury.

Joonas Kylmakorpi did not come south either but Bees scored highly in being able to name Chris Harris at reserve.

Grand Prix star Scott Nicholls collected his customary big haul but Harris was arguably the matchwinner.

He won his first two heats and added precious second places in heats 13 and 14, riding as Jonsson's replacement and substitute for Martin Smolinski, at a stage when Eagles were plotting a comeback.

Eagles got just four points from their four replacement rides for Norris, including a heat win by Nicki Pedersen.

Adam Shields took the first heat of the night but Eagles never led the contest and were 31-23 adrift when Nicholls came out of an early interval to take race nine.

The hosts had chances to get back into the contest but blew them.

A potential 5-1 or 4-2 for Pedersen and Shields against Billy Janniro and young Morten Risager disappeared in the cloud of shale which accompanied Shields into the barriers on lap one.

To his annoyance, Shields was excluded and all Pedersen could do in the re-run was ensure a share of the spoils.

Chance No. 2 came when Dean Barker gated in heat 12 and Harris fell on the first lap.

Janniro, though, quickly got past Barker to force another 3-3.

Harris came straight back out for second place in heat 13 behind Pedersen, who was racing for double points.

Then, with Eagles needing a 5-1 in race 14, Harris got ahead of Andrew Moore to virtually secure his team's overall win.

Nicholls and Janniro rounded it off with a maximum for Bees but Cook had delivered his own sting by then.

Eagles: Pedersen 17, Watt 10, Shields 6, Moore 5+1, Barker 4+1, Jensen 0.

Coventry: Nicholls 15+2, Janniro 11+2, Harris 11, Risager 6+3, Bager 6, Smolinski 2.