The Basingstoke Bison lost twice to the newly crowned league champions the Leeds Knights last weekend, writes Graham Merry.

On Saturday night in the home game, man of the match Jordan Lawday was in superb form as he limited Leeds to just four goals from 49 shots.

The Knights took the lead in the contest at 14:08 from Finn Bradon with a shot from the top of the circle.

The score remained like this until the final minute of the second session, when a great feed from Marcus Mitchell released George Norcliffe and he stormed down the left wing, before firing home.

Leeds took the lead again on their first shift of the final period from Zach Brooks, but once again the Herd hit back as Marcel Balaz found Gael Lubwele to score.

The Knights then won the game thanks to two goals in the final five minutes as man of the match Bradon got his second of the game and Kieran Brown netted the other.

On Sunday night in Leeds, the home side took the lead in the 13th minute from an excellent strike from Jake Witkowski.

Zack Milton equalised for the Herd, but Matt Haywood made sure Leeds led at the first break.

They then scored three unanswered goals after the interval from Brown, Bradon and Cole Shudra, before Liam Morris netted a second for the Bison.

Adam Barnes wrapped up a 6-2 win with the only goal of the final period.

Bison head coach Ashley Tait said: “I felt Jordy (Jordan Lawday) had his best game of the year on Saturday and I felt over the whole weekend given the low number on the roster, we gave a good account of ourselves.”

The Bison conclude their regular season fixtures with a doubleheader against the Sheffield Steeldogs with the home game on Saturday at 6.30 pm.

As they enter the final weekend the Herd are one point ahead of Telford in seventh spot and both teams have two league games left.

If the Bison finish seventh they will face either MK or Peterborough in the play-off, if they end up eighth they take on Leeds.