Eastbourne chief Bob Dugard reckons the subtle approach has helped turn his club’s season around.

Now he is calling on fans to give team manager Trevor Geer credit for taking Eagles from the bottom of the Elite League in late June to league safety and a cup final.

The Arlington outfit improved dramatically in the second half of the season to finish 15 points clear of rock bottom Ipswich.

But it is their form in the Knockout Cup, most notably the 36-point demolition of Wolverhampton in the semis, which has got people talking.

Geer is known as one of the most easy-going men in speedway and fans can hold that against him when things go wrong.

His polite queries of refereeing decisions in televised meetings, in situations where other managers would be ranting and raving, are legendary.

However Dugard said: “He takes a lot of credit. His critics say he is too soft but he has proved his worth over other people perceived to be more rigid in their approach. I think his methods are the right ones.”

Dugard insists he was not happy with the turnout for last Sunday’s home leg against Wolves which, despite improvement on recent weeks, fell short of a 1,300 break-even figure.

Eastbourne will stick with the same tapes-up time for the final, racing a week on Sunday at 5pm.

Dugard said: “It sounds like I’m totally negative but it has got to be sustainable.

“People thought it was fantastic on Sunday but, when we got the figures back, the official attendance was 1,040 and that was not enough.

“We now race Poole, who are probably the richest club in the league while we are the poorest.”

The home leg of the final is all-pay with admission not covered by season tickets. Poole completed a 108-79 aggregate win over Peterborough last night and host the second leg of the final on October 27.