Man of the match Tom Duggan can't find a way past the Bison netminder

Phoenix had to settle for a two-point weekend after going down at home to Basingstoke.

Tony Hand’s injury hit men couldn’t repeat the heroics of Saturday night when they beat the Bison 5-2 in Hampshire.

He said: “I’m glad we got something out of the weekend but I would much preferred to have got something in front of our own fans.

“But obviously you can’t pick and choose.

“The guys played really well over the weekend and gave everything they have got but it’s tough at the moment because a huge part of our team is sittting in the stands.

“But injuries are part of the game and we just have to get on with it.”

Basingstoke went ahead in the first period with a short-handed goal from former Phoenix man Joe Miller

John Connolly makes his Altrincham debut

But the game turned at the end of the second when Ryan Johnson was given a match penalty for high sticks.

Steve Moria put Basingstoke further ahead seconds into the third period on the resulting five minute major penalty.

Phoenix got caught out by another breakaway and despite Steve Fone saving the initial shot, the puck rebounded Steve Wallace and into the net for Basingstoke’s second short handed goal of the night.

Hand added: “They scored two short-handed goals and normally we wouldn’t concede two in the whole season.

“We were concentrating so much on not getting scored on we forgot how to score ourselves.

“We had chances but when Johnno got a five minute penalty it meant we had lost another d-man and they scored on the powerplay.”

Pictures: Nick Ogden