THE Basingstoke Bison moved back to the top of the English Premier League with a well deserved 4-1 victory over the visiting Manchester Phoenix.

Joe Greener and Mark Thomas dropped their gloves in the opening two minutes of the contest and traded punches, as both players earned four minutes for roughing.

In an even opening period, the only goal was scored by the visitors thanks to an excellent strike from James Archer, after good work from Robin Kovar.

The home side took just 63 seconds of the second session to draw level, thanks to their captain Aaron Connolly.

The Herd then dominated the rest of the session with a string of chances which Stephen Fone was equal to.

The final period saw Manchester start the better, but it the Bison who scored as Stuart Mogg converted Joe Greener’s cross at 46:07.

The Herd then ran into penalty trouble as Alex Symonds joined Mogg in the sin bin, which gave Manchester 71 seconds of a two man advantage.

The penalty kill unit of Joe Baird, Ciaran Long and Greener did an excellent job as Manchester failed to score with Tomas Hiadlovsky making two good stops to deny Stanislav Gron.

The home side then extended their lead to two goals with seven minutes left, when Greener scored with an excellent solo strike.

Tomas Karpov produced an excellent finish into the roof of the net at 57:24 to complete the scoring.

Ryan Sutton nearly added a fifth goal, but Fone denied him right on the final buzzer.

The Bison are in action this evening when they travel to the Link Centre to face the Swindon Wildcats.

The Wiltshire side won at former leaders Milton Keynes Lightning last night 4-3, so it will be a stiff test for the Herd.