THE Basingstoke Bison were unable to stop the Swindon Wildcats extending their lead at the top of South One to six points, after they won 5-1 in Basingstoke on Sunday night.

An even start to the top of the table contest saw the Herd have the best chance of the opening 10 minutes, when George Norcliffe was just unable to finish a lovely move involving Adam Jones, Ashley Tait and Michal Klejna.

The Bison then lost Richard Bordowski forced out of the contest due to injury.

Swindon then hit the Herd with two quick goals in the space of 14 seconds.

The first one was fortunate as Loris Taylor’s shot went in off the back of Bison goalie Alex Mettam.

However, the second was a superb breakaway strike from Jonas Hoog, despite all the attentions from Chris Cooke.

At this point the Bison called a time-out, but seconds later only a smart save from Mettam denied Aaron Nell a third for Swindon.

The closest the home side came to closing the gap before the first buzzer was in a goal mouth scramble after Russ Cowley failed to get the rebound from man of the match Hallam Wilson's shot.

The Bison did better in the second session and had enough chances to level things by the mid way point of the contest.

However, Renny Marr was in great form and the pick of his stops was when he denied Alex Sampford at point blank range.

Swindon then lost their player/coach Aaron Nell after a hit on the boards, but his fellow line mates made sure the Wildcats were in full control going into the final session as both of them scored.

Chris Jones netted the first from the top of the circle, with a nice shot and Hoog netted the second after some lovely stick work.

The game as a contest was ended in the third minute of the final period, when Swindon man of the match Stephen Whitfield crashed the puck home.

The Bison scored their only goal of the contest at 50:46 on a four-on-three powerplay as Ashley Tait scored at the back post from Klejna and Adam Jones.

After this Wilson and Norcliffe came closest to adding to the Herd’s tally.

The Bison will now look to bounce back to winning ways when they travel to Romford to face the Raiders on Sunday night.