THE Basingstoke Bison lost their opening away game of their English Premier League campaign, as they went down 5-3 at the Peterborough Phantoms, who head the table after the first weekend.

The Herd got off to the worst possible start as Craig Scott, son of former Bison forward Paddy Scott, opened the scoring on the powerplay at 3:13.

The Phantoms doubled their advantage two minutes later as Ales Padelek and this is how it stayed to the first buzzer, as the Bison were unable to find a way past Janis Auzins.

The Herd started the second session in great fashion, as former Phantom Declan Balmer scored against his old club and Bison man-of-the-match Tomas Karpov tied the game at 26:11.

Edgars Bebris once again gave Peterborough the lead, only for Rand to latch onto a long pass from Shaun Thompson to level things again.

This was a good as it got for the visitors as a minute later James Ferrara netted with a back post tap in and then Darius Pliskauskas made it 5-3 at 35:39.

So the Phantoms maintained their two goal The period ended 3-3 despite the fact that Peterborough were out shot 19-6 as Auzins kept his side in the game.

The final session saw both sides unable to add to their tally so the game ended with a 5-3 scoreline to the Phantoms.

The Herd will look to bounce back to winning ways on Saturday (6.30pm) when they face a visit from the Manchester Phoenix, who opened their campaign with two wins.