BASINGSTOKE Bison will be out to extend their home winning streak to 10 straight victories when the Swindon Wildcats are the visitors on Saturday night (6.30pm).

This is the first of two meetings between these sides in the space of eight days, games that will go a long way to deciding which of them will finish third place in the English Premier League.

Going into the weekend, the Herd are three points clear of the Wildcats, but Swindon have a game in hand.

Honours have been even so far this season between these sides, with Basingstoke winning the first two encounters and then Swindon winning the next two.

Bison player/coach Doug Sheppard is fully aware of the importance of the game and said: “This is a massive game for us and there can be no excuses. We have to focus on making sure we get the win.”

The Herd welcomed forwards Grant Rounding and Aaron Connolly back from injury last weekend.

Rounding scored the winning penalty shot and Connolly netted twice in the penalty shoot-out win over Guildford.

On the minus side, defenceman Declan Balmer picked up a knock at the end of the game and is doubtful for this weekend, while Bison’s long-term injured trio Matt Selby, Brendan Baird and Tomas Karpov will all miss out.

So the Herd will once again be reduced to three imports, while Swindon have the luxury of having five in their squad.

However, they can only play four of them and in the last two games against the Bison they used their quartet of foreign forwards.

This has not been the case in recent weeks, as an injury to defenceman Shane Moore has forced them to bring Canadian Kenton Smith back to the blue line, meaning they have only been able to ice three import forwards.

The Herd will have to wait until Saturday to see how their opponents line up, but whatever they decide to go with, it will be a close, hard-fought game.

Then, on Sunday (6pm), the Bison have their final local derby game of the season against near neighbours Bracknell.

The Bees are consigned to finish bottom this season, but they have already beaten the Bison at the Hive this season.

Games are always a real battle when these sides clash as there are a number of former Basingstoke players in the Bees’ ranks.

The Herd could also face another former Bison junior, Thomas Beesley, from Overton, made his senior debut for the Bees last weekend as they lost in Swindon, but he did pick up the man-of-the-match award.

Looking ahead to a trip to Bracknell, Sheppard said: “They are a hard working young team and we have to make sure we match their intensity if we are going to win.”