Eastbourne Eagles stormed into the semi-finals of the Elite League Knockout Cup with a 59-36 win over Peterborough Panthers at Arlington Stadium on Saturday night.

The Sussex side overturned a 19-point deficit from the first leg to go through 96-92 on aggregate and avoid Manchester United-type heartbreak after they had dominated the match.

The tie went all the way to a controversial last heat and ended with Eagles flying high while the visitors were furious over Grand Prix referee Mike Posselwhite's decision to award a decisive 5-1 to the home team.

Nicki Pedersen and David Norris were heading for victory over Peter Karlsson when Karlsson's team-mate Ales Dryml fell on the second lap.

Posselwhite, who would have been forced to order a rerun when the rules used to only allow the referee to award a race on the last lap, excluded Dryml and placed Pedersen and Norris first and second.

Despite the Peterborough protests, it was really no more than Eastbourne deserved. Had Karlsson got a second bite of the cherry and won the race, Eagles could have claimed they had been the victims of a robbery.

They made steady inroads into Peterborough's first-leg advantage, going eight points up after four heats, 12 points ahead after six races and 16 points after nine heats.

That became 18 points after the next race, and the scores were level on aggregate with three races to go, with Eagles now looking odds-on favourites to go into the last four.

Peterborough, who had not won a race up to that point, were not ready to lie down, however, and Eagles suddenly found themselves with a scrap on their hands.

Within two races, Pedersen, Norris and Adam Shields, who had won nine races between them, all lost their unbeaten records.

Karlsson was fast out of the traps in heat 13 to beat Pedersen and Norris, and then Dryml roared to a surprise win over Shields and Davey Watt.

Another shared heat in the finale would have meant the teams having to start all over again in a two-leg replay. Anything less for Eagles and they would have been heading out of a competition they have won three times.

Pedersen, though, nailed Karlsson at the first turn, and he and Norris were on their way until Dryml came down with no one near him.

For most of the match, the visitors had no answer to an Eastbourne onslaught.

While Eagles piled up the points, Panthers struggled to make any sort of impact, even failing to get anywhere near the front in three tactical moves which produced only five points doubled up.

Ales Dryml was trounced by Pedersen in heat seven, Karlsson only managed second place behind Pedersen in heat 11 courtesy of Lukas Dryml shutting down on the run-in, and Lukas Dryml never looked like catching Watt and Dean Barker from 15m back in heat 12.

Sam Ermolenko had a miserable night, failing to beat an Eastbourne rider in four attempts, two of which ended with him being excluded, once for a fall and once for going through the tapes.

In contrast, Eagles came up with another solid all-round display to post their biggest win of the season.

Watt, on his last Arlington appearance before being promoted from a reserve spot, won three races, which included roaring past Lukas Dryml on the outside in heat eight.

Fellow Aussie Shields also went round the boards to beat Karlsson in heat five.

Arguably, heats nine and ten were the crucial ones.

Shields and Barker, who went past Ermolenko coming out of the pits turn, pounced for a 5-1 at an important time, and while Norris won the next one in a canter from Ales Dryml it needed Watt to snatch third place on the line from Henning Bager to give Eagles a 4-2.

Eastbourne: Nicki Pedersen 14, Davey Watt 13, David Norris 12, Adam Shields 11, Dean Barker 5, Andrew Moore 3, Steen Jensen 1. Bonus points: Watt 2, Norris 2, Barker 2, Moore 1.

Peterborough: Peter Karlsson 12, Ales Dryml 11, Lukas Dryml 6, Henning Bager 3, Richie Hawkins 2, Sam Ermolenko 2, Jon Armstrong 0. Bonus points: Lukas Dryml 2, Bager 1, Hawkins 1.