The curtain went up on the Nicki Pedersen show at Arlington Stadium on Saturday night. And the man in the lead role left the stage to a standing ovation.

Pedersen rolled out four straight wins on track to becoming Eastbourne's top scorer for the third time in four nights. It might have been five if the rain had not interfered. It could even have been six if Pedersen's enthusiasm had not got the better of him on his debut ride.

In the end, four was enough to send the fans into orbit and Eagles on their way to a spectacular 46-38 win over play-off rivals Wolverhampton after they had gone ten points down in four races.

Afterwards the Danish superstar said: "I enjoyed it so much. I am so glad to be here. The team spirit was great. Even when we were losing. Everyone worked so hard to get us back into the match."

On that race when he dived inside Peter Karlsson and was excluded after both riders had come off, he explained: "I am sorry about the first race. You need to be quick when you see a gap and go for it. I came in a little bit too tight and couldn't hold it."

Eastbourne boss Jon Cook, who was equally fast out of the traps a few weeks ago to snap up Pedersen, said: "It was an unbelievable performance by Nicki. We have got the best rider in the world at the moment, and the fighting spirit when we were down took us to a different level."

Cook heaped praise on stand-in skipper David Norris. "It was a terrific effort by the whole team, but David was inspirational. And for Dean Barker to come out with Nicki in heat five and beat Sam Ermolenko and Mikael Max after they had just blown us away was fantastic. It turned the match."

To be fair to Wolves, they had to run five races with rider replacement or a substitute for broken ankle victim David Howe, employing overworked reserve Brent Werner in seven of the 14 races, but that should take nothing away from an inspired Eastbourne comeback.

The home side were consistently outgated and dropped 5-1s in heats one, three and four to trail 17-7.

Ermolenko and Max Karlsson savaged Mark Loram and Norris in the opener, Ermolenko and Daniel Nermark pocketed heat three in a rerun after Barker's wildly cart-wheeling machine had taken Nermark into the fence, and Peter Karlsson and Werner took advantage of Pedersen's rush of blood in heat four.

The only respite for the stunned Eagles was Joonas Kylmakorpi getting past Werner on the last lap in heat two.

It meant Eastbourne using a tactical substitute on their own track incredibly after just four races. It had to be Pedersen, and it did the trick. The new man won it from the front, with Barker finding a gap on the inside of Max Karlsson.

Loram and Norris bagged a 4-2 in the next and, when Pedersen and Joonas Kylmakorpi roared to a 5-1 in heat seven, Eagles were back on terms at 21-21.

Wolves were in front again after the next, Norris getting past Werner but having to settle for second place after a thrilling wheel-to-wheel duel with the remarkable 44-year-old Ermo-lenko.

Peter Karlsson won heat nine from Barker but a routine maximum by Loram and Norris over the outclassed Werner and Nermark in heat ten put Eastbourne ahead for the first time in the match.

Pedersen had to pull out the stops to beat Ermolenko in heat 11 and then it was all back in the melting pot when Nermark and Werner pulled off a shock 4-2 over Barker and Kylmakorpi to square things at 36-36.

Heat 13 was the one that brought the house down. There was no catching Pedersen, but Loram, still no more than 75 per cent fit after breaking his arm in two places, had to battle his way through from the back past both the Karlsson brothers to put Eagles in the driving seat at 41-37.

Another 5-1 in the next by Kylmakorpi and Davey Watt as the rain came cascading down stretched the gap to eight points, and that was it. The last race was abandoned, but nobody cared, except they might have been denied another Pedersen-Loram master class.

Next stop for the Pedersen road show is Oxford tonight (7.30pm) against the team that elbowed the world championship leader a few weeks ago.

The last time the teams met, Pedersen scored 17 points for Oxford. Now Eastbourne have him in their camp. He said: "I know the machine set-ups for Oxford, so hopefully I can help the boys there."

Eastbourne: Nicki Pedersen 12, Mark Loram 9, Joonas Kylmakorpi 8, Dean Barker 6, David Norris 5, Davey Watt 4, Scott Robson 2. Bonus points: Watt 2, Loram 1, Kylmakorpi 1, Barker 1, Norris 1.

Wolverhampton: Sam Ermolenko 11, Peter Karlsson 9, Brent Werner 8, Daniel Nermark 6, Mikael Max Karlsson 4, Chris Neath 0. Bonus points: Max Karlsson 2, Werner 1, Nermark 1.

John Freemantle john.freemantle @theargus.co.uk