WINNING trophies for his home town team is the number one priority for netminder Dean Skinns – the Basingstoke Bison’s latest signing.

The 28-year-old, who is returning to the club from the Swindon Wildcats, said: “I am really excited about returning to Basingstoke as the number one goalie, and I want to win trophies for them. That has always been my ambition.

“We have a good team this season that is going work really hard to make sure we get results, and I am looking forward to being a part of it.

“I am a goalie who plays better when playing back-to-back games, and I get better the more minutes I play.”

Bison player/coach Doug Sheppard feels he has the right man for his team, and said: “Dean had an outstanding year with Swindon and was always consistent. He shut us out in our own building and also had two big games against us in the play-offs.

“Joe Baird, who we signed earlier in the summer, was his team-mate last season and saw first-hand how solid he is as a goalie.”

This will be Skinns’ third spell at the club having made the most amazing debut of probably any player in the club’s history when, as a 16-year-old, he was called into action in a critical Findus Cup group game in Slough.

The game in September 2001 saw the Bison in a winner-takes-all contest and they led 2-0 after 40 minutes, at which point Stephen Foster was unable to continue.

This saw teenager Skinns thrown in at the deep end. However, he excelled and completed the shut-out, helping to book the Herd a place in the semi-finals.

Skinns said: “It was a great game to start my Bison career.”

After three more years at the club as the back-up goalie, two of which were in the Elite League, the Basingstoke-born stop stopper left the Bison to get more ice time. He played for Bracknell, Slough and Guildford, winning the play-offs with Slough and English Premier League Cup with Guildford.

He returned to Basingstoke in the autumn of 2010 as their second goalie, but took over the number one spot and back-stopped the Herd to their best-ever winning run in the EPL of 12 straight victories.

He also played his part in getting the Bison to their only final of the EPL era in the EPL Cup.

The following season, he saw reduced ice time which did not help his game and at Christmas he was released, being replaced by Stephen Wall, who fared little better.

He signed for Swindon and last October produced a shut-out in Basingstoke for the Wildcats and also put in an outstanding performance in the play-off match against Herd.

The signing of Skinns means the club’s have made a straight swap in the goalie department with Stevie Lyle going in the opposite direction.

In eight games last season between Basingstoke and Swindon, the two netminders’ save percentage rates were identical.

Lyle, along with retiring Greg Owen, are the two top British players that the Herd have lost during the summer, but Bison boss Sheppard is adamant that the side he has built for this coming season will compete for silverware and glory.

He said: “We have lost some of our superstars, but I have upgraded the team in other areas, and the fans will see this when we announce the final players.

“I feel we have a better defence than last season. We also have more depth and balance in our forwards, and have a line-up that from one to 10 is pretty dangerous.”