THE BASINGSTOKE Bison turned in a spirited performance on Sunday night, but left empty handed beaten 6-4 by league leaders Manchester Phoenix.

The Herd were minus Tyrone Miller from Saturday’s line-up, but Mindy Kieras returned from his sick bed and Basingstoke Buffalo’s Daniel Lackey also made the trip.

The home side opened the scoring after 63 seconds, as Adam Walker scored assisted by Ed Courtenay and Tony Hand and that forward line did most of the damage on the night scoring five of Phoenix’s six goals.

They also combined for Manchester’s second goal as Walker made it 2-0 at 10:56.

The Bison hit back as Steve Moria beat the home side’s man-of-the-match Adam Summerfield playing in place of the injured Steven Fone.

The second session saw the first penalty of the game from referee Joy Tottman, as Joe Graham departed for roughing.

However, it was Manchester who scored shorthanded thanks to Courtenay and the same player then netted on the powerplay to make it 4-1.

The goals were now coming thick and fast and Bison’s Tom Long replied from Ondrej Lauko and Moria at 31:53.

Manchester hit back a minute later, as Courtenay completed a second period hat-trick, only for Herd to score their third thanks to a Joe Ciccarello shorthanded marker.

The visitors made it 5-4 at 41:08, as captain Nicky Chinn scored from Long and man-of-the-match Sam Oakford.

However, the Phoenix gave themselves some breathing space as Jaakko Hagelberg completed a move involving Greg Wood and Joe Graham three minutes later.

The Bison still went in search of goals and even pulled netminder Tom Annetts in the final 32 seconds, but Manchester held on to win 6-4.