Braehead Clan v Sheffield Steelers: Character key to Steelers' ambitions

But the main ingredient he believes will serve them better than any other this season is character.

Two weeks ago, the Steelers saw their unbeaten start to the domestic season unravel with Challenge Cup defeats to Nottingham Panthers and Cardiff Devils.

Fast forward seven days, however, and the Steelers were back on track, getting their league title defence off to a positive start with a 5-3 home triumph over Braehead Clan before returning to winning ways in the group phase of the Cup by defeating Manchester Storm.

Tonight sees Steelers return to the league programme, travelling north this morning to take on Braehead for a second meeting in seven days with Ryan Finnerty’s side.

“There is a lot of quality in our team, but the thing I like most about us at the moment is our character,” said Thompson.

“We have shown already that we have the ability to bounce back from setbacks like two weeks ago when we lost two Cup games. These players like being pushed hard every day in training and we are trying to improve them as players every single day – it is our job to push them as hard as we can and they are revelling in that.”

Not surprisingly, Braehead will be keen to exact some swift revenge on the Steelers in Glasgow tonight, but Thompson is confident his players can cope with whatever comes at them.

“They’ve got a lot of quality in their line-up and offensively Ryan’s team are always dangerous,” he added. “He’s an emotional coach, he likes his teams to play the same way.”