THE Basingstoke Bison are just two games another final and also a place in the National Play-off showdown at Coventry next month.

Victory this weekend will book them a place in the South One play-off final next weekend and also means they qualify for the national finals the week after.

Standing in the way of the Herd are the much improved London Raiders, who saw off the Bracknell Bees last weekend, while the Bison eased passed Invicta.

The first leg will be in Romford on Saturday (5.15pm) with the return in Basingstoke the following night at 5.30pm. Dan Davies is back after missing the away game in Invicta.

When these sides last met in Essex in the closing weeks of the league campaign, the Bison won the game 2-1 with all the goals coming in the last period with Aaron Connolly and Ryan Sutton scoring in the final five minutes of the game.

The last time the Raiders came to Basingstoke was in November, when they lost 6-0, but they are lot better than that now hence why they finished fourth in the league.

Last weekend, they won in Bracknell 7-6 and then on home ice 4-2 imports Marek Nahlik and Juraj Huska scored five goals between them and there was also three from Jake Sylvester.

Ahead of the weekend Bison head coach Doug Sheppard said: "They are the most improved team in this league. They are really hard working and it is going to be a tough weekend."