THE Basingstoke Bison travel to face the Manchester Phoenix tonight – still in with a shot at booking a place in the English Premier League Cup final.

The sides will clash for the second time in three days in the second leg of the semi-final. Currently, the Phoenix hold a slender one-goal advantage.

On Tuesday night, Man-chester scored the winner at the Planet Ice Arena in the final two minutes to record a 3-2 victory.

While the league leaders will start as favourites back on home ice, that will not faze Bison boss Steve Moria and his men.

He said: “On Tuesday night, it was disappointing because we did not play our best game. They came with a game plan to stop us playing and to take advantage of our mistakes, which they did.

“Our big game players failed to show up but we will play better in Manchester. I see no reason why we cannot go there and win, as we have done already this season.”

Twice in the first leg, the Herd came back to equalise thanks to blue line bullets from Mindy Kieras, only for Tony Hand to grab a controversial late winner to add to earlier strikes from Marcus Kristoffersson and Curtis Huppe.

Talking about the winning goal, which saw Bison’s Ondrej Lauko taken out of the play at centre ice, Moria said: “It was disappointing to lose a game that way as it was a clear interference call, but the referee has not seen it.”

After tonight’s game, there is no let up for the Bison as they have two crunch home league games at the weekend against the Sheffield Steeldogs on Saturday (face-off 6.30pm), and the following night the Milton Keynes Lightning are in town, for a game which has the earlier start time of 5.30pm.

Moria admits the title may be just beyond the third-placed Herd, but he is keen for his side to finish as high as they can.

He said: “They are home games that we need to win. We are currently very much in a battle for second to fifth, and I would love to finish higher than we are at the moment. Taking number one spot may just be too much for us, but I definitely feel we can get second.”

So far this season, the Bison have beaten the Steeldogs three times.

Then on Sunday, the Herd face a Lightning side they beat in overtime in Basingstoke last time, but the Bison lost on penalty shots at MK.

Moria said: “Sheffield are a hard-working young team and will make it difficult for us. Milton Keynes play a style exactly the opposite to Manchester. They will come and pressure you into making mistakes and that will be a tough game.”

One boost for the weekend is the likely return of broken wrist victim Tony Redmond.

See Thursday's Gazette for a full report on the semi-final first leg.