BASINGSTOKE Bison moved up to second place in the English Premier League, after they beat visiting Manchester Phoenix 4-3.

The Herd welcomed back forwards Ciaran Long and Aaron Connolly, but were minus defenceman Matt Selby.

Manchester were without forwards James Archer and Jacob Corson-Heron and so defenceman Ben Wood played as a forward.

The visitors started the game the better and opened the scoring at 6:12, as Shaun Thompson put away Robin Kovar’s rebound.

The goal stood dispute the protests from Bison captain Nicky Chinn, that referee Matt Thompson had blown the whistle before the puck hit the net.

The Herd hit back and levelled things five seconds into their first powerplay of the night from Tomas Karpov.

The second session saw Manchester take the lead again from man-of-the-match Kovar, but a minute later the Bison equalised thanks to a sweet strike from their man-of-the-match Long.

From then on the home side dominated the period and Andy Melachrino hit the post, before Long with a shot from the right wing made it 3-2 at the buzzer.

The visitors took just 84 seconds of the final period to tie the game once more, after Johan Burlin was given far too much time and was able to waltz in from the blue line and score.

The Herd hit back straight away as good work from Long and Connolly set up Doug Sheppard to score what turns out to be the game winner at 42:46.

Manchester pushed for an equaliser and were given a powerplay in the final five minutes of the game.

This was after an awful call by referee Thompson, as he only sent Joe Greener to the sin bin after Joe Graham fails to get to feet after a challenge.

The Herd killed the penalty and with the Phoenix unable to pull their goalie in the final minutes, the Bison returned to winning ways.

Tonight, Basingstoke have a tough road trip to Sheffield (face-off 5.30pm).