Bob Brimson wants to make on-loan Morten Risager an Eastbourne Eagle for the rest of the season.

The young Dane, dropped recently by Coventry, was one of the stars of the show as Eagles went agonisingly close to their first away win of the campaign last night.

Eagles, missing unwell Nicki Pedersen, eventually lost 46-44 at Reading Racers but will fancy their chances of grabbing a bonus point in the return fixture.

Risager rounded the evening off in good style when he got a flyer from the gate and led home the outstanding Davey Watt in an Eagles 5-1.

Reading had made sure of their first win under new ownership in the previous race when Stefan Andersson slithered into the air fence when last.

Watt won that race too but back-to-back victories from home reserve Jonas Davidsson in heats 11 and 12 proved decisive.

Eagles promoter Brimson swallowed his disappointment at missing out on his first away win in charge and said: "There were a few positives.

"Davey was awesome but Morten was the big plus point.

"His confidence had taken a huge, huge knock and I think you could see what it meant to him at the end.

"We will be sorting Morten out. We will be talking to Coventry in the next few days and we want Morten to be in for the rest of the season, maybe longer.

"I think the club has to look to the future.

"Morten is young and he's just the kind of rider we like. I think we can really help him along with the kind of club we are and he is very, very happy at Eastbourne."

Watt and Risager shared the race of the night from an away point of view when their maximum in heat seven edged thir team ahead.

The Dane was very fast around the outside while Watt held firm close to the white line.

Eagles were generally very quick out of the gate but Reading produced most of the best passes and that yielded some very precious points.

Mark Lemon went from fourth to a paid win by darting between Lewis Bridger and wide-riding Gary Havelock off the second bend in heat five.

Sam Simota got up on the line to pip Cameron Woodward to third in heat eight.

And Matej Zagar got past Watt for the paid win behind Davidsson in heat 12 which gave Reading what turned out to be a decisive six-point advantage.

The key moment of the night, though, came in the previous race.

Davidsson was left as lone Racer in a re-run when Travis McGowan fell trying to make up ground.

Eagles were just two points down at that stage but Davidsson went tapes-to-flag in the re-run for one of the most convincing wins of the night.

Heat details 1.McGowan, Havelock, Bridger, Kolodziej, 60.24 (3-3).

2.Davidsson, Andersson, Woodward, Simota, 60.42 (6-6).

3.Watt, Bridger, Zagar, Lemon, 59.67 (7-11).

4.(re-run) McGowan, Risager, Simota, Woodward, 61.24 (11-13).

5.(awarded) Zagar, Lemon, Havelock, Bridger (f.ex), no time (16-14).

6.Andersson, Kolodziej, Davidsson, Risager, 61.42 (19-17).

7.Risager, Watt, McGowan, Davidsson, 61.40, (20-22).

8.Kolodziej, Bridger, Simota, Woodward, 61.42 (24-24).

9.Zagar, Andersson, Lemon, Risager, 61.02 (28-26).

10.Watt, Zagar, Kolodziej, Andersson (ef), 60.64 (31-29).

11.(re-run) Davidsson, Bridger, Havelock, McGowan (f.ex), 61.49 (34-32).

12.Davidsson, Zagar, Watt, Andersson (ef), 60.93 (39-33).

13.(re-run) McGowan, Risager, Havelock, Kolodziej, 62.33 (42-36).

14.(awarded) Watt, Lemon, Davidsson, Andersson (f.ex), no time (45-39).

15.Risager, Watt, McGowan, Zagar, 62.89 (46-44).

Reading 46 Greg Hancock rider/replacement Janusz Kolodziej 0,2,3,1*,0 =6+1 Matej Zagar 1,3,3,2,2*,0 =11+1 Mark Lemon 0,2*,1,2 =5+1 Travis McGowan 3,3,1,X,3,1 =11 Jonas Davidsson 3,1*,0,3,3,1* =11+2 Sam Simota 0,1,1 =2 Eagles 44 Gary Havelock 2,1,1*,1* =5+2 Lewis Bridger 1*,2*,X,2,2 =7+2 Davey Watt 3,2*,3,1,3,2* =14+2 David Norris rider/replacement Morten Risager 2,0,3,0,2,3 =10 Stefan Andersson 2,3,2,ef,ef,X =7 Cameron Woodward 1*,0,0 =1+1