THE Basingstoke Bison are just two victories away from winning their first piece of silverware in 13 years after they qualified for this weekend’s English Premier League play-off finals at Coventry.

The first team standing in their way will be the Manchester Phoenix in the semi-final on Saturday, which has a 7pm face-off.

The victors will then face the winners of the first game of the weekend between league champions Guildford Flames and Milton Keynes Lightning in the final, which will take place on Sunday afternoon (face-off 4pm).

The Herd booked their place in the final four after a titanic Easter weekend battle with the Swindon Wildcats.

Joe Greener’s overtime winner in the second leg at the Basingstoke Arena sealed a famous victory for the Herd.

It ended four years of play-off hurt for the Bison faithful as their side finally made it to the Coventry grand finale, and a large Bison continent will make the trip to roar their side on.

Both fans and players will take great heart from last weekend’s performance and they will be hoping the Herd can find a way to win twice more in Coventry.

Speaking after last weekend’s drama, delighted Bison player/ coach Doug Sheppard said: “That is what play-off hockey is all about, close, tight games.

“Our fans have been so great all season so it is nice that they can now go to Coventry to support their own team.”

Last weekend, Manchester lost the first leg of their quarter-final tie in Berkshire against Bracknell Bees 4-3, but then rose like a phoenix to win the second game 7-2.

That booked their fourth consecutive trip to Coventry, but they have yet to win the trophy.

The closest they came was last season when they lost in the final to Slough Jets – a side then coached by current Bison boss Sheppard.

Ahead of the semi-final, the Bison will take heart from their impressive record against Manchester this season – the Herd have chalked up five wins out of six matches.

Sheppard said: “Manchester are an extremely hard-working team who will come at you for the whole 60 minutes, so it will be a very intense game.”

This weekend the Bison are again without young Great Britain stars Cameron Wynn and Matt Selby, meaning they will be short benched as they were against Swindon.

But a positive Sheppard said: “We have players in the dressing who won in Coventry last year and others who have won play-offs and that should help us in what is our biggest weekend of the season.”

See this week's Gazette, on sale now, for a full report from the play-off quarter-final - and you can follow Graham Merry’s live match updates from Coventry by logging on to basingstokegazette.co.uk/sport.