Sheffield Steeldogs coach Greg Wood backs his team to prove their quality on play-off finals weekend

The Steeldogs head into Saturday’s NIHL National play-off semi-final against Raiders IHC as favourites to advance to Sunday’s final, where they could find themselves embroiled in an all-Yorkshire encounter should Leeds Knights get past Telford Tigers.

And given the way that Wood’s team dispatched of Swindon Wildcats in the quarter-finals - winning 9-4 on aggregate - there is no shortage of confidence going into this weekend’s last four showdown.

“On Friday, against Swindon, we were sensational,” beamed Wood. “Every single guy played to the top of their abilities. Our line-up was balanced having that bit of quality back in and everybody just executed everything we put forward.

“There were some fantastic individual performances and as a team everything went the way we wanted it to.

“We’re peaking at the right time performance-wise, which is really pleasing as a coach.”

Last year’s play-off weekend saw the Steeldogs cause something of an upset when they saw off league champions Telford Tigers and then league runners-up MIlton Keynes Lightning 4-1 in the final.

Nobody gave the Steeldogs much chance of making the final, let alone winning the thing but, 12 months on, Wood feels his team have to prove themselves once again.

“We’ve always got something to prove,” said Wood. “Even last weekend, if you looked on Twitter and other social media, hardly anybody had us down to beat Swindon.

“So we’re constantly having to prove ourselves and we’re a proud group who wants to do well and it’s fuel for us when people say we aren’t the team that we think we are.”

Given last year’s play-off weekend victories, Wood believes his team have proved they have what it takes to turn up for the big occasion when it matters.

“One thing we have done well over the last couple of years is that, as a group, we’ve really tuned in for the big games. - we’ve really played to the top of our game when it matters,” added Wood.

“Last year we had a tough play-off group to get out of, then we had the league champions in the semi-final and then the second-placed team in the final . To win everything you’ve got to be at the top of your game and you’ve got to beat the best.”