Eastbourne Eagles finished up with the title they did not want at Arlington Stadium last night.

The Sussex squad will go down in speedway history as the first team to win the Elite League but lose the championship.

On a night of high drama which went right down to the wire, they were pipped for the title by Wolverhampton in the play-off decider.

Eagles won a thriller 46-44, but it was not enough to wipe out the eight-point deficit from the first leg and Wolves ran out aggregate winners by 93-87.

Eastbourne, who had finished four points ahead of Wolves in the 32-match league schedule, needed to score back-to-back 5-1 heat wins in the last two races to force a run-off.

They got one through Dean Barker and Billy Janniro, but the other never looked likely with Wolves tracking the Karlsson brothers, Mikael and Peter, in the final heat.

Mikael won it in 55.9sec., the fastest time of the night, from Mark Loram, with Peter relegating Eastbourne skipper Joe Screen to last place.

While the visitors celebrated a famous triumph, Eagles could only reflect on the injustice of it all.

That is certainly the case, but on the night Eastbourne could have no complaints.

In truth, they were never in a winning position, and the writing was on the wall long before the final act.

Wolves won without ever having to defend their lead with tactical substitutes.

They seized the initiative early on with a Peter Karlsson and Adam Skornicki 5-1 in heat three and a 4-2 by Mikael Karlsson and Jesper Jensen two races later, both at the expense of the Screen-Barker pairing.

Mark Loram and Stefan Andersson hit back with a 5-1 in the next, but heats seven and eight proved crucial.

Eagles might have hoped to get something out of both races, but Wolves took them 4-2 and 5-1.

First Peter Karlsson roared past Janniro on the back straight on the final lap, while Skornicki held off David Norris.

Then two of the lesser lights, David Howe and Jensen, wiped out Andersson and Janniro after Janniro had touched the tapes and was penalised 15m.

Screen and Barker salvaged a 5-1 from heat nine after former Eagle Paul Hurry, who had earlier been excluded after piling into the fence with Janniro in heat four, was banished again after he and Screen crashed.

The final nail in Eastbourne's coffin was arguably heat 12. Janniro won it, but a potential 5-1 went up in dust when Screen and Peter Karlsson came down on the last bend and Screen was excluded by referee Chris Gay.

After that, the odds were stacked against Eagles, and the Wolves hit men, aka the Karlssons, delivered the knockout blows.

Guest man Janniro, who headed the Eastbourne scorers with Loram, was magnificent in the cause, repeatedly punching the air and throwing his goggles into the crowd when he kept Eagles' hopes alive in the penultimate race.

Edward Kennett, 16 years and a bit, didn't let the side down either on his top-flight debut as an 11th-hour replacement for Savalas Clouting, who was rushed to hospital earlier in the day with suspected meningitis.

But what Eagles desperately needed from within their own ranks were two Mark Lorams.

Sadly, they only had one.

Eastbourne: Mark Loram 12, Billy Janniro 12, Dean Barker 6, Stefan Andersson 5, Joe Screen 5, David Norris 4, Edward Kennett 2. Bonus points: Loram 1, Janniro 1, Barker 1, Norris 1, Kennett 1.

Wolverhampton: Mikael Karlsson 14, Peter Karlsson 10, David Howe 8, Adam Skornicki 6, Jesper Jensen 3, Chris Neath 3, Paul Hurry 0. Bonus points: Peter Karlsson 1, Howe 1, Skornicki 1, Jensen 1, Neath 1.