TEENAGER Ollie Hemmings-Maher scored his first-ever Basingstoke Bison goal last Sunday in Peterborough, writes Graham Merry.

The game also saw Roman Cathcart and James Bryan pick up their first-ever points for the Herd, the latter on his debut.

The Bison travelled to the game with only eight senior players as 10 were missing due to sickness.

So two-way players from Slough, Hemmings-Maher and Cathcart once again were in the line-up and the Bison gave debuts to Basingstoke Buffalo players Xander Robinson, Travis Penny, McKenzie Parsons, Samuel Compton and Bryan.

Therefore it was no surprise that the high-flying Phantoms with a full-strength roster skated away to an 11-2 victory.

The Bison’s opening goal came at 38:46 scored by Edgars Landsbergs assisted by Bryan and Alex Mettam.

Their second of the night arrived at 42:22 from Bison man of the match Hemmings-Maher, as he finished off a move which involved Cathcart and Landsbergs

The Peterborough scoring was led by their man of the match Corey McEwen with a hat-trick, while Lukas Sladovsky, Duncan Spiers and Ales Padelek netted braces and there were single strikes from Glenn Billing and Jasper Foster.

Bison head coach Ashley Tait said: “We had no choice and had to travel on Sunday. Obviously we had minimal current Bison players and those were far from 100 per cent well.

“I felt Ollie and Roman played well as did all the guys we called up. I have apologised to them for having to put them into that situation. It should not have happened.”

The Herd were able to postpone Saturday’s game with the Raiders as it was a home fixture. This has been rearranged for Sunday, March 19.

This Saturday, November 12 (6.30pm), the Bison are hoping to have a full-strength squad for the visit of the Sheffield Steeldogs, who narrowly beat them in Yorkshire last month.

Tait is looking forward to the game and said: “We matched up well last time we played them and I felt we were good value for a point at least.”

Then on Sunday (6pm) the Herd travel to the reigning league champions the Telford Tigers.