Glasgow Clan v Sheffield Steelers: Coach Aaron Fox confident Elite League leaders can take their 'A-game' to Scotland

Newly-installed in the summer, Clan head coach Jason Morgan has yet to see his team celebrate victory in their three regular season league games, with just the one win coming from their three Challenge Cup encounters.

But, clearly, it is early days and not too much can be read into results so far - regardless of which end of the table you find yourselves.

Steelers make their latest road trip in buoyant mood, knowing a win would take them clear of rivals Nottingham Panthers at the top of the table, who are currently level on points and who host them on Saturday.

In contrast to the Clan, the Steelers have won all but one of their league and cup games so far, their only setback coming at the start of the month on home ice to Cardiff Devils.

Other than that, the Steelers have been impressive, their latest success coming at the Utilita Arena on Sunday when they saw off Dundee Stars 3-0, their only game of the weekend.

Confidence is high for both head coach Fox and his players, and rightly so.

“It doesn’t really matter who we play right now, we truly believe that if we’re on our game, playing our ‘A’ game we’re a tough ask,” said Fox. “So we just focus on ourselves here and be ready to win the battles and outwork Glasgow on Wednesday and make sure we get the points.

“They’ve got a new coach who is coming in with high expectations of himself and his team. So he wants to get off to a good start and make an impact early doors here.

“I know him a little bit from when I was in Europe. He is a pretty decent guy and I’ve heard good things about him as a coach, too, so he’ll do a good job there.

“I like their team on paper, it is a good hockey team and they are scoring a lot of goals, so we’re going to have to be ready.”

One advantage Fox believes his team has right now is their ability to roll four lines consistently, with most of their rivals running with three. The law of averages in terms of injury problems dictates that the Steelers won’t be able to do that throughout the entire season, but Fox hopes it will work in their favour in the long run when it comes to deciding who lifts the regular season trophy at the end of March.

Further good news on the available bodies front should arrived on Wednesday morning with forward Brandon Whistle having recovered from an upper-body injury which had so far kept him out all season.

“For us, it’s about trying to play the same way every single night,” added Fox. “We’ve been playing four lines and a lot of teams are only playing three right now.

“We feel like that is going to carry us, maybe not early in hockey games but later on in games and later in the year.

“We’re very comfortable and confident in all six of our defencemen, if you look at the time on ice there, it’s all pretty tight, so we’re not over-extending anybody’s minutes right now.

“We’ll get a nice bump with Whis’ coming back, too. We were just playing it safe with him and making sure it’s not something we have to deal with all year.”