Photo (C) Jo Loat
By Simon Church
The GalxC Cooling Services sponsored Basingstoke Bison will be clocking up the road miles over the weekend, starting with a trip to the Link Centre in Swindon on Friday night, finishing with a Sunday outing to Elland Road in Leeds.
Friday’s National League game which has a 7.30pm face off, sees the Herd take on 2nd place Swindon Wildcats who trail leaders Telford Tigers by 2 points, having played one game more than the Shropshire side.
Heading the scoring for Swindon is their player coach Aaron Nell, from 29 appearances Nell has 59 points (30+29). Czech import forward Emil Svec, is the next best with 39 points (26+13) also having made 29 appearances.
In Renny Marr and Dean Skinns, Swindon have a quality net-minding duo which form a large part of reason they’ve conceded the 2nd fewest number of goals in the league, and will certainly present a strong challenge to the Bison forwards.
Sunday’s long distance road trip to Yorkshire puts the Bison up against the league’s form team the Leeds Knights, in a game originally scheduled for the 20th February, face off at the Elland Road rink is 5.15pm.
The Knights sit in 5th place and they come into this weekend on the back of 2 excellent wins against the Milton Keynes Lightning.
In 20 year old Kieron Brown, they have not only an outstanding British prospect, but also the league’s leading points scorer. Brown, who this week was announced as returning to Leeds next season, has posted an impressive 69 points (34+35) in just 28 appearances. Team mate Brandon Whistle is close behind on 61 points (28+33) from 28 appearances.
Sam Gospel guards the pipes for Leeds, from 23 games he heads the league’s net minding stats with a save percentage of 91.7.
Two very tough games lie ahead for Ash and the team, both opponents have excellent goal scorers and secure net minders. However, the Bison have proven in the past that these are type of challenges which bring out the best in the players. Fans of the Herd will be looking for two big 60 minute performances following a run of 3 disappointing defeats.
Spare a thought for our intrepid away match reporter Nigel, double the workload as well as his in-game Facebook updates…….good luck mate.
