Elite League quality no great surprise to Sheffield Steelers boss Aaron Fox

The basic research Fox would have undertaken when applying for the job earlier this year will have told him all he needed to know about the league and, one month into his tenure, there have been no major surprises for the American with the continued improvement in quality and all-round competitiveness of the league clear to see.

This weekend sees Fox’s team take a break from the road with back-to-back home games scheduled, starting with tonight’s visit from Guildford Flames (7pm), before Glasgow Clan – now coached by former Steelers’ defenceman Zack Fitzgerald and including fellow former fan favourite Mathieu Roy in their line-up – arriving 24 hours later.

The Steelers go into tonight’s encounter looking to extend a three-match winning streak.

“I felt coming into the gig that the league is a lot better than it is given credit for,” said Fox, who is looking at bringing in a replacement for long-term injured defenceman Aaron Johnson, while fellow blue liner Aaron Brocklehurst remains a doubt to face the Flames.

“I’d seen some pretty high-end players come into this league and have average success, so I knew that it wasn’t going to be a walkover league.

“Over the first month here that has rang true. There’s a lot of parity in this league and there’s a lot of good hockey teams. There are good players all over. Guildford, for example, they are skilled, fast, not overtly physical but just a good all-round hockey team.

"On any given night, any team can beat any other in this league. Milton Keynes had a really tough year last year, they were probably far and away the worst team in the league yet they still found a way to beat some decent teams, so you have to be ready to compete and battle for 60 minutes.

"If we don’t do that, we will have some rough nights - but that’s the same for anyone in this league. I don’t think there is anyone in this league that’s good enough to coast against any other team here - every team has to be ready to put the work in and do the little things right.”

Fox admits to having some frustrations at early-season losses to Nottingham Panthers and Coventry Blaze, but a swift exacting of revenge on Danny Stewart's team followed by wins last weekend over Manchester Storm and Dundee Stars have enabled a good week of practice ahead of this weekend's home double.

"We are finding our rhythm and settling in more to a good routine and it’s been a good week - a few wins on the bounce always helps, naturally," added Fox.

"Having Aaron Johnson out is definitely a big blow. He has probably been our most physical and most reliably defensive defenceman. So I’m going through the process right now on a few guys and if I find somebody who I think can really help us for 6-8 weeks then we’ll do a deal. If not, then we’ll keep our options open and keep looking."