THE Basingstoke Bison will hope to build on last weekend’s excellent four-point weekend, as they face the Manchester Phoenix and Swindon Wildcats this weekend.

The Herd are joint second with the Peterborough Phantoms and both sides have two games in hand on the leaders Milton Keynes Lightning.

The Bison won at Sheffield and at home to Swindon last weekend and next up is a visit from the Manchester Phoenix on Saturday (6.30pm) and a quick re-match with the Swindon Wildcats this time at the Link Centre on Sunday (6pm).

The Herd have already beaten Manchester twice this season, but on both occasions their star player Slovak Stanislav Gron was missing from the line-up due a broken foot.

The former National League Hockey Player has bags of experience from playing in the America Hockey League is now back to spearhead their attack and so far scored six times in seven games.

The Herd are expected to be at full strength for the game as British forward Alan Lack who was unavailable last weekend is back. Stuart Mogg, who sat out the final period of the Swindon with an upper body injury after being hit by a Miroslav Vantroba slap shot, is expected to be fit as well.

The Bison go into the game looking to maintaining their impressive unbeaten home record.

Looking ahead to the game Bison head coach Doug Sheppard said: “We have done well against Manchester already this season, but we know this time we are going to have to keep an eye on (Stanislav) Gron as we want to maintain our great home record.”

On Sunday night, Swindon will be out for quick revenge on the Herd and are a different animal when it comes games on home ice.

The Bison looked very much the better side against the Wildcats last weekend and skated away to a 5-1 victory as the Swindon offence failed to fire.

Sunday is sure to be a different story and Sheppard is taking nothing for granted and said: “Swindon at home is a tough game. With their firepower, we have to make sure again, we stay out of the sin bin as their powerplay was dangerous last week.”