THE Basingstoke Bison will be looking to bounce back to winning ways this weekend, when the Manchester Phoenix are in town on Saturday (6.30pm).

The Herd’s home winning streak was snapped last weekend, with a 2-0 loss against Guildford, a game in which Bison head coach Doug Sheppard felt his side was out worked again, having played so well the weekend before.

Sheppard said: “It proves if we decide to have a game off we are going to get beat. I felt Guildford wanted the win more than us and I want us to get to playing as we did against Swindon and Milton Keynes."

The Bison have already beaten the Phoenix 7-2 this season. A game in which Dan Davies and Vanya Antonov both scored twice.

So the Herd will think they are in for an easy night against the English Premier League basement side and if they do this it could prove to be their downfall.

Sheppard said: “Manchester have the players to hurt you if we allow them to.”

Saturday’s game is a cup and league and after the Guildford loss, the Bison need to make sure they win against the Phoenix to keep alive their hopes of making the semi-finals, with Peterborough at the moment looking the favourites for the final four place.

On Sunday night, the Bison have just a league game at Sheffield, and will be looking to win the series over their Yorkshire rivals having already beaten them three times.

The Steeldogs were victors in Guildford last weekend, making this a tough trip.

Sheppard said: “Both games are winnable this weekend, if we play as well as we can if not we could end up with nothing.”