THE Basingstoke Bison suffered back-to-back defeats this weekend, as on Sunday night they lost 5-1 at the Telford Tigers after losing at home to Sheffield the previous night.

The Herd were minus suspended British forward Joe Greener and in a great end-to-end game the home side broke open the match with two goals in the space of 28 seconds in the first period.

Sam Zajac netted and then Rick Plant hammered home Dale White's rebound to make it 2-0.

The Bison looked to have given themselves a lifeline with the first goal of the second session, as Ryan Watt tipped in a Joe Baird blue line shot after man of the match Aaron Connolly had seen his shot saved seconds earlier.

The Tigers restored their two goal advantage, as Rick Plant netted four minutes later.

Soon after, a Telford powerplay Bison's Rene Jarolin crashed a shot off the crossbar, but this was a close the Herd were to get to another goal.

The Tigers roared again at the end of the second session as former Bison forward Joe Miller scored and then Peter Szabo netted after some lovely stick work.

Despite trailing 5-1 going into the final session, the visitors did not give up and forced Sam Gospel to make a number of saves, including one to deny Tomas Karpov in the final two minutes.

At the other Jon Baston had a busy night as he faced 50 shots and pulled off a great save to deny Jason Silverthorn after the forward broke clear when the Tigers were shorthanded.

The defeat saw the Bison's lead at the top of the English Premier League cut to two points and next up for them is a EPL Cup semi-final against the visiting Guildford Flames on Wednesday (7.30pm).