THE Basingstoke Bison will look to extend their winning home run to eight games when the Sheffield Steeldogs are in town on Saturday.

Doors open at 5.30pm and fans are expected to get there early, as when the Steeldogs were last in town, player/coach Andre Payette tried to start a fight in the warm-up.

Another hard-hitting physical battle is expected with the last one fresh in the minds of the Herd players. It was only a fortnight ago that they last beat Sheffield in Basingstoke.

The Herd made it seven straight wins on home ice last weekend by beating local rivals Bracknell, but it came at a cost as British forward Aaron Connolly was injured.

He, Grant Rounding, Matt Selby and Brendan Baird are all expected to miss the game against Sheffield.

However, British forward Andy Melachrino should be back after illness ruled him out last weekend.

The Herd will be keen to beat Sheffield to keep up the pressure up on the second-placed Guildford Flames, while the Steeldogs need to win to avoid swapping places with eighth placed Milton Keynes.

The team that finishes the season eighth are likely to end up playing league champions elect Telford Tigers in the play-offs.

Sheffield travel to MK on Sunday, which on paper looks the more important game of the weekend for the Steeldogs.

Looking ahead to the visit of Sheffield, Bison player/coach Doug Sheppard said: “We had a great weekend with wins over Bracknell and Peterborough and we are playing well at the moment.

“Against Sheffield we have to make sure we focus on playing our style of game, but as always we have make sure we keep an eye on (Lubomir) Korhon and (Janis) Ozolins as they can really hurt us if given the chance.”

This is the Bison’s only game of the weekend. Their next game after the visit from Sheffield will be a crunch game with Guildford a week on Saturday.