THE Basingstoke Bison returned to the top of the English Premier League, after an excellent come-from-behind 5-3 victory over their local rivals the Guildford Flames.

In front of a bumper crowd for their first ever home Friday night game the Herd found themselves 3-1 down after 20 minutes to their Surrey visitors.

The Bison welcomed back defenceman Declan Balmer into their line-up for the contest with fourth placed Guildford.

However, things did not go to plan as they shipped two goals in the space of 27 seconds in the fourth minute as Matic Kralj and Erik Piatak both scored.

The Herd were then awarded a penalty shot, after Paul Dixon hauled down Ciaran Long. The Bison forward dusted himself down, but was unable to beat Stephen Wall.

The home side then pulled a goal at 9:02, as Shaun Thompson scored off the back of Wall.

Despite this, the Flames took a two goal lead to the locker room, after man-of-the-match Kralj netted his second of the game on the powerplay.

The second session, saw Bison man-of-the-match Ryan Watt reduce the lead to one going into the final period.

The home side came out fired up for the last 20 minutes and really dominated for the first time in the contest.

They tied the game up at 53:58, thanks to Joe Greener and before the home fans had time to celebrate the third goal, the impressive Alan Lack scored 20 seconds later to make it 4-3.

After this Guildford had some chances and were given a late powerplay thanks to an awful penalty call from referee Stefan Hogarth.

With 36 seconds left in the game Guildford swapped their goalie for the extra skater, but the move back fired, as Aaron Connolly hit the empty net with 15.5 seconds left to secure the victory.

Tonight, the Bison have another big game as they travel to Milton Keynes for a top of the table clash.