THE Basingstoke Bison season may be over, but head coach and general manager Mark Bernard is still a busy man getting ready for the next campaign, the second year of his two-year contract with the team.

Bernard said: "I think we have made a lot of progression during this year and we have won a lot of people over, even if we didn't make it to the play-offs.

"I feel the players can leave with their heads held high after an excellent end to the season.

"We nearly ended with the perfect weekend, only going down to Cardiff 3-2 on Sunday. It was also nice to see Dean Skinns have a good game in goal."

The head coach believes that the Herd have a good core of players to build on, and has not ruled out Canadian forward Jeff Corey, who had a season-ending knee injury in November, pulling on a Bison jersey once again.

Bernard said: "Jeff showed a lot of promise when he was here, but I've yet to speak to him about a return."

The Elite League for next season has already grown to eight teams after the Newcastle Vipers were officially accepted on Tuesday morning.

The Vipers have moved up from the British National League, where they were the runners-up this season.

On Sunday night, the Basingstoke Bison completed their Elite League campaign with a 3-2 defeat in Cardiff.

The first period was goalless, but a clash between the Bison's Jason Norrie and Devils' Neil Francis earned each four minutes for roughing.

The second session got off to the worst possible start for the visitors as Cardiff scored twice in the opening two minutes, thanks to John Cullen and man-of-the-match Vezio Sacratini.

The Herd pulled a goal back as Shawn Maltby netted from a Doug Sheppard pass at 24:41.

The Devils smashed 24 shots down on Dean Skinns' goal in the middle session, and the British goalie did well to limit them to just three goals, the third coming from Sacratini.

Just three seconds before the buzzer, Bernard exchanged words with Simon Kirkham and earned a two-minute penalty before being dismissed from the bench.

The final period saw the Bison pull a goal back on the powerplay as Shaun Thompson netted from Jerry Galway at 50:07.

In the final minute, Skinns was pulled for the extra skater, but the visitors were unable to find an equaliser.

The Bison man-of-the-match went to Canadian defenceman Brent Pope to mark his retirement from the game.

Pope spent three seasons at Cardiff at the start of his British career, which spanned nine years in total.

The game also saw the retirement of two unsung heroes in team equipment manager Alan Parrot and his assistant Tony Skinns, both having served the club for a number of years.

While the Bison season is over, the rest of the Elite League are now involved in play-off action, with the top two from each group of three making it to the finals weekend in Nottingham on the weekend of April 9 and 10.

Group A is made up of Coventry, Nottingham and London, and group B contains Belfast, Cardiff and Sheffield.