THERE was no joy on the road last weekend for the Basingstoke Bison as they lost 5-2 in Swindon and then 4-1 in Sheffield.

The Herd welcomed back Ollie Stone and Alex Sampford, but were without forwards Hallam Wilson, Adam Harding and Paul Petts.

Having taken the lead in Swindon thanks to a crisp strike from Adam Jones, the Bison lost starting goalie Dan Weller-Evans who was forced out of the game in the eighth minute due to injury.

Alex Mettam took over and the Bison doubled their advantage by the first buzzer as Zack Milton finished a nice powerplay move which involved Jones and Alex Roberts.

After the interval, the Wildcats hauled themselves back into the game at 29:19 thanks to Evil Svec’s strike and then a brace from Balint Pakozdi put them 3-2 up at the second interval.

Swindon netted twice more in the final period thanks to Svec and Tomasz Malasinski to complete the 5-2 victory.

On Sunday in Sheffield, the Herd took the lead with the only goal of the first 20 minutes scored by Roberts assisted by Ashley Tait and Stone, which was his first point of the season.

Man of the match Mettam kept the Steeldogs at bay until 57 seconds from the second buzzer, when Jason Hewitt scored.

The home side then took the lead at 55:50 from Sam Towner. The goal was given even if the net was off its moorings as the Bison protests were waved away.

In the final two minutes, the Herd pulled their netminder, but the move backfired as Hewitt hit the empty net and with Mettam back between the pipes, Jamie Spurr added a fourth.

Meanwhile in Basingstoke, last Sunday the Buffalo beat the visiting Bristol Pitbulls 3-1.

Neil Leary, William Birch and Warren Jones were all on target for the Buffs.

The previous night, they lost 4-3 in Invicta with Birch netting a brace and James Eldridge getting the other.

Last Saturday, the table topping under-14 Bison reeled off another impressive win as they crushed visiting Milton Keynes 13-1.

Ethan Wiltshire, Daniel Bird and Lelio Bellamy all scored hat-tricks and there were braces from Freddie Wilkinson and Ellis Austin.