BASINGSTOKE Bison player/coach Steve Moria admitted his side had lost their individual battles as they went down 6-0 to the visiting Guildford Flames in their play-off quarter-final first leg clash.

The Herd defence could not cope with the heat of the Flames’ strong forwards – they have two imports on their front two lines and last season’s top British goalscorer on their third.

Talking about the defeat, Moria said: “Our forwards lost the battle with their defence and our defence lost the battle with their forwards.
“They played a smart hockey game tonight and we abandoned our game plan. We panicked going down so many goals and started to try and make things happen as individuals.”

Talking about his period team talks, Moria said: “I felt we were nervous in the first period and did not play as well as we can. I wanted us to relax and play our game, but things then went from bad to worse.”

The Bison were 5-0 down by the end of the second period but still had four periods of hockey to play in the quarter-final encounter.

Moria added: “I felt if we could scored two or three goals in the final period that would certainly have given us a chance.
“It would also have meant we would have had the momentum ahead of the second game, but it was just one of those nights and nothing fell for us in front of the net.”