BASINGSTOKE Bison’s English Premier League title hopes suffered another setback as they were beaten at home by local rivals Guildford Flames last night.

The hosts were unable to recover after conceding two early goals, going down to a defeat that leaves them fourth in the table, 13 points behind runaway leaders Telford Tigers, at the halfway stage of the season.

Last night’s game at the Basingstoke Arena got off to the worst possible start for the hosts as Guildford went ahead with just 92 seconds on the clock. A Bison attack broke down and Guildford broke quickly, with David Longstaff picking out Roman Tvrdon, who fired past home netminder Dean Skinns.

The visitors doubled their lead at 7:19, giving the Bison a mountain to climb. Miroslav Vantroba was sent to the sin-bin for interference and while the hosts managed to survive the powerplay, they conceded as he made his way back onto the ice, an unmarked Jez Lundin firing home after good play from Marcus Kristoffersen.

The Bison grew into the game as the first period progressed and they managed to pull a goal back seven seconds before the first buzzer, Joe Greener firing home from close range to bring an end to a goalmouth scramble.

Basingstoke survived a scare early in the second period, when Skinns took the full force of a shot to his facemask, but after a lengthy delay, the home netminder was ruled fit to continue.

When play resumed, it was the Herd who came out fighting, forcing visiting netminder James Hadfield into several saves, while Ciaran Long was inches away from levelling the game, his shot smacking the post.

In a cruel twist of fate, the Flames went straight up to the other end of the ice and restored their two-goal advantage, Longstaff snapping a wrist strike beyond Skinns at 32:02.

Basingstoke continued to threaten, but were unable to grab a second goal before the second buzzer, and it was a similar story in the final period, with Long, Tomas Karpov and Doug Sheppard all going close.

The hosts made the decision to pull netminder Skinns with 30 seconds to play and they did pull a goal back in the dying stages, Karpov scrambling the puck home.

However, with just seven seconds remaining, the Bison were unable to find an equaliser, going down to their 10th defeat of the season.