Eastbourne Eagles go head to head with Wolverhampton at Arlington Stadium tomorrow night fearing a backlash from their cup rivals.

The prize for the winners of the two-part showdown between the Elite League giants, which will ultimately be decided with Monday's instalment in the Midlands, is a place in the knockout final.

Eastbourne boss Jon Cook is anticipating a battle royal, and while Eagles in their present mood are afraid of no one, he admits his table-toppers must beware of Wolves hitting the payback button.

"I imagine we didn't do ourselves any favours by humiliating them in front of the TV cameras earlier in the season. They will feel they have a lot to prove."

Eagles came up with one of the surprise scorelines of the season when they won the league encounter by 56-34 at Arlington in May.

Cook expects it to be much closer this time. In fact, he says: "The way speedway is at the moment, we could lose at home and win up there. We proved that against Coventry."

Eagles, however, have every reason to be confident of reaching the final for the first time since 1997, when they won the trophy.

Said Cook: "We are going well enough to be able to counter anything they throw at us. We are the top team in the country at the moment, so it is up to us to go out there and prove it."

Cook is not setting his side any targets to take away from the first leg. "We have to win it first and worry about the points afterwards. We only lost by four up there in the league, so there is a lot to play for."

Eastbourne will have their wounded warriors back in action for a hectic schedule of three matches in four days, which also includes an important visit to reigning champions Oxford tonight in the league.

Skipper Joe Screen, Dean Barker, Stefan Andersson and Toni Svab, who missed last week's spectacular win at Coventry, all rode in the Swedish League on Tuesday and came through unscathed.

Wolves, though, will be without Daniel Nermark, who will be missing for the rest of the season after sustaining a fractured thigh in a crash last week, the same injury which sidelined Screen for most of last year.

Nermark has been a revelation this season and former Eagle Paul Hurry, who is now one of the Wolves heat leaders, concedes the injury is a massive blow to the Midlanders.

"When you are building a team capable of winning things, you need someone to come up trumps and he has made a difference to us big-style this season."

Added Hurry, who was a member of the 2000 title-winning Eastbourne team and won the Sussex championship earlier this year: "He has been dynamite, beating heat leaders from reserve. It's a big blow to us."

Hurry, however, is not writing off the chances of Wolves fast-tracking their way to the final at the expense of his old club. And it's easy to see why.

Even without Nermark, they turned over King's Lynn earlier this week, when Hurry was one of five riders who either scored double figures or were paid for double-figure returns.

The Karlsson brothers, Mikael and Peter, both Arlington specialists, are flying at the moment, while Jesper B. Jensen has hit form again and David Howe is through to the final of the Grand Prix qualifying tournament.

Wolves will also have the replacement for Nermark, Poland's Adam Skornicki, in place for the return at Wolverhampton on Monday.