JAMES MANSON scored his first ever league goal for the Basingstoke Bison, which turned out to be the game winner as the visitors beat Milton Keynes 2-1 on Saturday.

The Wella-backed side were trailing 1-0 going into the final period, but two goals in the last 10 minutes secured revenge for a 2-1 defeat at the same venue earlier in the season.

The Bison also welcomed back Canadian forward Dru Burgess into their line-up after a five week lay off with a knee injury.

Coach Charlie Colon said: "We out-shot them like we did last time and once again Craig Lindsay had a good game in net.

"But in the end we made our chances pay."

In the first period, Stephen Foster saved a one-on-one from Nick Poole in the ninth minute and then came the first powerplay of the night as Mark Hazlehurst departed for roughing at 9:43.

That penalty saw plenty of Bison pressure but no goal. Then the Kings were given a man advantage as Neil Liddiard departed for holding Nick Poole.

With just five seconds left on the powerplay, the home side opened the scoring as Hazlehurst scored with a blue line shot.

The second session saw no goals but plenty of chances with Jimmy Andersson, Peter Nyman and Joe Baird all going close for the visitors and Foster saving a one-on-one from Michael Wales.

The final period saw the Kings fail to score on two powerplays, before the Bison were handed a man advantage with Simon Howard departing for interference at 50:33.

They made the most of it as Richard Little and Albie O'Connell combined for Bison man-of-the-match Jeff Daniels to score at 51:02.

Three minutes later and Little was involved in the winner as his pass found Manson (left) and his rocket shot flew into the top corner from the blue line and sent Lindsay's water bottle flying into the air.

The visitors looked to have made the game safe with two minutes remaining as O'Connell scored but referee Evans disallowed the goal as netminder Lindsay was unable to save it as he was lying under a couple of players.

With 30 seconds left Kings' man-of-the-match Lindsay was pulled for the extra skater, but the home side were unable to force the game into overtime and the Bison kept up their title challenge.

Scoring; Bison: Daniels, Manson 1+0, Little 0+2, O'Connell 0+1; Kings: Hazlehurst 1+0, Poole, Clarke 0+1. Shots on Goal: Foster 18, Lindsay 40. Penalties: Bison 12, Kings 10.