THE Basingstoke Bison face the Peterborough Phantoms in the first leg of the South Cup final this evening which starts at 7.45pm.

The Herd will be hope to build up an advantage to take into the second leg which in Peterborough on March 13.

The Bison will hope to have leading goalscorer Richard Bordowski back in their line-up after injury ruled him out last weekend.

Bison player/coach Ashley Tait said: "At the moment fine margins which is costing us games and I am really looking for us to get back to winning ways. all games against Peterborough have been tight and don't expect this to be the same.”

This Saturday, the Bison have a quick revenge mission, when the Raiders from Romford come to Basingstoke.

Last Sunday, the Herd narrowly lost in Essex 3-2.

Then on Sunday night, the Herd are in action at the Link Centre against table toppers the Swindon Wildcats.

Looking at the current South One table Swindon need just four points to win the title, but the battle for second third and fourth is still up for grabs.

The Peterborough Phantoms are second with 53 points from 36 games.

The Bison have 51 points from same amount games and the Bees are on 50 points also from 36 games.

Tait said: “It is very tight at the moment and Swindon look set to be champions, but we want to finish in the top three so we can avoid them in the play-offs until the end. It would also be good to put a marker down for the post season on Sunday against them."

This weekend, the Bison will be without defenceman Chris Cooke.

He is set to captain Great Britain at the 2019 Winter Universiade which takes place in Krasnoyarsk in Russia from March 1 to 12.

This is the second largest winter multi sport event in the world

Also in the GB team is former herd man Ivan Antonov and current Bracknell Bees, as well as fellow South One players Streatham’s Andreas Sigaris, Peterborough’s Nathan Long and MK Thunder’s Josh Crane.

GB’s opening game is on Saturday and is a real baptism of fire as they take on might Canada.

Two days later, they are in action against Switzerland, before facing Kazakhstan on March 6.

Two days later GB will take on Latvia and a day later, their final game is against Sweden.