Wolverhampton look to back up their first away win of the season tonight when they face perennial close rivals Eastbourne at Monmore Green.

Irrespective of Elite League positions, the two teams invariably serve up a close contest as their home tracks are not dissimilar to each other's. When they met at the end of April, it took a dramatic last-race 5-1 victory from Billy Hamill and Peter Karlsson to rescue Wolves from a shock defeat against a weakened Eagles side.

Now, though, the Arlington men are back at full strength with Nicki Pedersen certain to be a high scorer on one of his old home tracks and Adam Shields back from a serious pelvic injury.

The Australian made his comeback on Saturday evening in the Eagles' win over Belle Vue, scoring eight points from four rides.

With one of their tougher home tests expected tonight - and the two sides also clashing in the Knockout Cup later in the season - Wolves will be hoping that skipper Peter Karlsson gets the green light to resume racing.

Karlsson, almost an unstoppable force at Mon-more, has suffered from a couple of niggles in recent weeks, the most serious being a concussion sustained in the Swedish League last Tuesday that ruled him out of Wolves' win at Arena-Essex on Wednesday.

The Swede was undergoing further doctors' tests over the weekend and should he and Pedersen both be racing at full-throttle, their clashes will be no place for the faint-hearted.

In a league where away wins are comparatively rare this season, Wolves have plenty to race for, despite their current position in the bottom half. In previous years, four or five away wins have been required to make the top four, but in 2006 it seems more likely that any positive ratio of away wins to home defeats, allied to a majority of aggregate bonus points, will keep a team in the hunt.

The Eastbourne match is Wolves' only outing this week as the domestic programme is slightly truncated by the football World Cup, with usual Thursday tracks Ipswich, Peterborough and Swindon not running meetings due to England's 5.15pm clash with Trinidad & Tobago.

Coventry do have one home and one away match on their agenda this week and two wins would go a long way towards seeing them mount a real play-off challenge in defence of their Elite League title.

They defeated table-topping Belle Vue on Friday at Brandon, where they have shown good form in recent weeks, but need to improve their away record at Oxford on Wednesday.

Bees star Chris Harris said: "Oxford will be a tough one now that Todd Wiltshire is going well and that seems to have led to them all going well, but hopefully we can go there and turn them over.

"I think we have turned the corner as a team in the last few weeks. We are all chipping in with points and our win over Belle Vue on Friday was a good one as they are a strong team."

Following that, the Bees face impressive Reading - the only visiting team to so far have come away from Brandon with a win - at home on Friday. ..SUPL: