THE Basingstoke Bison will be looking to make it magnificent seven wins on the trot this weekend, but standing in their way, are the sides either side of them in the standings in the English Premier League.

First up for the Herd, is a visit on Saturday night (6.30pm) from the fifth placed team the Hull Pirates, who are seven points behind the Bison.

Then on Sunday night (5.30pm), Doug Sheppard’s team head to Cambridgeshire to face the third placed Peterborough Phantoms, who going into this weekend, are a point clear of the Bison, having played the same amount of games.

The Bison are expected to welcome back forwards Aaron Connolly, Dan Davies, Joe Rand and defenceman Declan Balmer for the Saturday’s clash with Hull.

All four sat out the Herd’s victory over Bracknell last weekend.

However, injured Joe Miller is still out, while Stuart Mogg and Ivan Antonov departed yesterday for Kazakhstan and the Winter Universiade.

The Pirates lost on their first visit to Basingstoke this season, but have a very much changed team, including a new import netminder in Vlastimil Lakosil, while former stars Martin Ondrej and Tommi Laine.

Hull also have the league’s leading scorer in Andrej Themar, who they will have to stop.

However, they will come into the game looking to snap a six game losing streak, which including a semi-final EPL Cup defeat to Milton Keynes.

Meanwhile, the Phantoms are in great form having booked their place in the EPL Cup final with a penalty shoot-out win over Telford.

Looking ahead to the weekend’s game Bison boss Sheppard said: “This is one toughest weekends we have faced in a while and I want us to keep our winning run going.

"Hull will be hurting after their cup loss and that makes them dangerous, while Peterborough will be on high after making a cup final and it is always tough to play in their building.”