THE Basingstoke Bison will look to maintain their four point cushion at the top of the English Premier League, as they take on the Bracknell Bees and Manchester Phoenix.

The Herd increased their lead at the summit last weekend, after victory in their top of the table clash with Milton Keynes, which saw Rene Jarolin score twice.

The Herd then followed this up with a thrilling overtime victory in Hull, as Matt Towalski scored the game winner.

This saw the Bison snap a three game losing streak and head coach Doug Sheppard was pleased with his side’s performances and said: "It was important for us to bounce back to winning ways and this is what we did.

"I felt we played well in both games and deserved the wins."

This weekend, first up for the Herd is a visit from local rivals Bracknell.

This is the classic top against bottom clash and despite their lowly position the Bees will be keen to get up over on their local rivals.

They beat the Herd in the first meeting between these sides this season at the Hive, but then on their first visit to Basingstoke were soundly beaten 10-2.

When the Bees lasted buzzed into Basingstoke, it proved to be a very tight contest with the Bison just winning 3-2.

Despite the teams being at different ends of the table, Bison boss Doug Sheppard is taking nothing for granted and said: "Bracknell look like they are not going to make play-off, so theses are the games the players will really get up for and I expect it to to be a tough game.”

On Sunday night, the Bison travel to Deeside, to take on the Manchester Phoenix and so far the Bison have won all five games this season between the sides.

However, this counts for nothing on Sunday and Manchester will hope to build on their impressive 3-0 win on home ice last weekend, which kept them on track for a play-off place.

Sheppard said: “They are a lot more healthy now as a team and have got some very good players."

"They are a dangerous team and play really well on home ice, so i am not expecting it to be an easy game.”

Ahead of the weekend, the Bison were in action last night in the second leg of their EPL Cup semi-final, against the Guildford Flames at the Spectrum.

They had hoped to over turn a one goal deficit from the last week's home leg, but lost again 4-3 this time.

The Flames scored the first two goals of the game from Jez Lundin and Tom Duggan, before Ciaran Long pulled one back.

Kevin Phillps made it 3-1, before Aaron Connolly and Joe Greener tied things up on the night.

With the clock ticking down and still a goal down on aggregate the Herd pulled their netminder and Matt Towe scored into the empty net to seal the victory.