Jon Cook conceded the best team won as his battling Eastbourne Eagles slipped to a 97-83 aggregate defeat at Belle Vue Aces in the second leg of the Knockout Cup final last night.

Eagles took a slender twopoint lead to Vue after edging a 46-44 victory at Arlington Stadium last Saturday but it was always going to be hard task to keep that advantage and Aces eventually forced a 53-37 win on the night to take the cup.

Cook said: "I'm proud of the all the boys.

"We took it as far as heat 14 before Aces finally secured their victory.

"All in all, we did the best we could with what we had but we have been beaten by a team that has been better than us all season.

"There's no shame in that as they have been the best team in the country and they have lost the league in the same way as we did in 2002 Eagles finished top of the league but lost in the inaugural play-off final.

"If we had to lose to anyone then I have no problem with it being Belle Vue as I feel we did the very best we could."

Eagles got off to a great start as Dane Nicki Pedersen brought home the first points in heat one when he forced Eastbourne old boy Joe Screen and Simon Stead into second and third respectively.

Ollie Allen and Andrew Moore then combined for a 5-1 in the next to open a 54-48 aggregate lead but by heat six Vue were on equal terms overall and 19-17 ahead on the night.

Rusty Harrison led home Jason Crump in the next for Vue's second successive 5-1 but Eagles hit back immediately with Adam Shields and Moore steaming over for a 5-1 to level the aggregate score at 69-69.

Eastbourne kept plugging away but Aces produced a third 5-1 in heat ten through Crump and Stead and never dropped below an eight-point advantage again on the night, finishing off the job in style with 5-1's in the final two heats.

Cook added: "We had to come and win this speedway meeting because we didn't achieve enough on Saturday night.

"We set our stall out early on and took a lead but, as has been the case every time we have been to Belle Vue, we were unable to carry it through to the end.

"However, we are back up here on Saturday in the Craven Shield and, hopefully, we might produce an improved performance.

"This team is good enough to take something out of the season and we're going to be trying to make sure that happens.

"We all had good rides and we all had bad rides so you can't really single out one person. We went down fighting as a team and everybody did their best.

"That's what it is all about. It's been a fight all season and sooner or later we shall get something we deserve from it."

Belle Vue: S. Stead 5+3, J. Screen 12, J. Lyons 11+1, J. Crump 16+2, R. Harrison 4, A. Smith 5.

Eastbourne Eagles: A. Shields 7+2, T. McGowan (g) 5+2, D. Watt 6, N. Pedersen 11, O. Allen 3, A.Moore 5+3.

Tonight's fixture, Craven Shield semi-final: Peterborough v Coventry v Poole (7.30).