SHEFFIELD STEELDOGS’ player-coach Ben Morgan believes this weekend will give him the best indication yet of where his team lies in the overall NIHL National picture this season.

The South Yorkshire club have enjoyed a good start to their 2024-25 campaign, sitting fourth in the standings with six wins from their 11 games.

Leeds Knights v Sheffield Steeldogs: Savvy trio helping set early NIHL National ...

The only blip so far came in last Saturday’s 8-2 defeat at Yorkshire rivals Hull Seahawks, the team immediately above the Steeldogs, although Morgan insists the scoreline was not a fair reflection of the game.

Regardless of that setback, the Steeldogs rebounded immediately with a 5-2 home win over Solway Sharks, restoring confidence going into a weekend which brings them up against the top two.

First up is a trip to second-placed Leeds Knights, the defending regular season champions, before current leaders Milton Keynes Lightning - who went top courtesy of their 3-2 win after a shootout at Elland Road last Sunday - visit Ice Sheffield tomorrow.

There aren’t many more daunting weekends on the second-tier schedule, perhaps, but it is one that Morgan says he and his players are relishing.

“It’s a proper measuring stick for us,” said Morgan. “The test is to see if you can do it game-after-game-after-game, regardless of who you’re playing or where you’re playing.

WE MEET AGAIN: Leeds Knights and Sheffield Steeldogs meet for the first time this season at Elland Road Ice Arena on Saturday. Picture: Steeldogs Media.

placeholder image — WE MEET AGAIN: Leeds Knights and Sheffield Steeldogs meet for the first time this season at Elland Road Ice Arena on Saturday. Picture: Steeldogs Media.

“If we want to be the best, we have to beat the best and those two are the two best teams at the minute.

“We’ve put ourselves in a position on and off the ice to be a competitive club. We’ve got off to a decent start but we have aspirations of silverware, so if we are serious about it we need to be up there throughout the season and that means when we go into these types of games - against Leeds, against MK - that we understand the importance of them.

“They are four-point games because when you come to the end of the season the likes of Leeds and MK are going to be battling for first, second, third - and we need to be with them.”

Before the season started, both Morgan and GM Jamie McIlroy spoke of the need for patience, from the fans, owners, even the players themselves.

YARDSTICK: Sheffield Steeldogs' player-coach Ben Morgan is looking forward to the test of playing the top two in NIHL National this weekend. Picture: Peter Best/Steeldogs Media.

“In the grand scheme of things we are relatively satisfied, we understand that this is a building process and to get to where we want to be it’s not going to be a quick fix,” reiterated Morgan.

“But from a playing point of view we are in amongst it right now but, in my opinion, we need to be a little bit higher up the table and we need to start stringing wins together.

“We need to start dominating against pretty much every single team because I believe we’ve got the team to do that, it just takes a little bit of time when you’ve changed pretty much 50 per cent of the team.”

It will be a first derby meeting of the season between the Steeldogs and the Knights, with Morgan keen to right the hurt from last season when Leeds won all six games in the head-to-head series.

“We know this weekend is going to be a tough one,” added Morgan. “It’s been a while since we beat Leeds – I know that more than anybody. But it’s good to be able to go into a game against them with a relatively fresh team.”

Hull may have earned derby bragging rights over the Steeldogs, but were brought back down to earth with a 7-5 defeat at Telford Tigers the following night.

They will look to hit back in their double-header weekend against Berkshire Bees, Ashley Tait’s team sitting ninth but having beaten Leeds on home ice 2-1 back on October 5.