Sheffield Steeldogs target second straight four-point weekend as Hull Seahawks look to sting Bees IHC

Because of the drawn-out saga over the summer relating to the ownership of the team - Sheffield Steelers’ owner Tony Smith eventually getting the green light from other NIHL National team owners - the Steeldogs were ham-strung when it came to adding new faces to their roster.

As a result, they entered the 2023-24 season with just two of their three permitted imports, forwards Matt Bissonnette and Latvia’s Vladislavs Vulkanovs.

But, for budgetary reasons, chiefly relating to the associated costs of bringing an import player to the UK, Hewitt is prepared to stick with what he has and look for talent a lot closer to home.

Ahead of a double-header weekend with winless bottom-of-the-table Bristol Pitbulls, the Steeldogs hosting on Sunday (face-off 4.30pm).

“We’re very similar to last year - obviously we’ve added Jonno (Jonathan Phillips) and some other younger lads but, even with the coaching change, it’s not like the recipe is much different.

“We’re still a blue collar team and we know we’re going to have to earn every point that we get.

“We don’t carry three imports like most of the other teams in this league and maybe you can look at it sometimes and regard us as being a player down in that respect.

“The plan for this season is not to sign another one, based on budgets and everything that goes with bringing another import in, but we’re actively looking for other players as we do want more depth.”

Elsewhere in NIHL National, Hull Seahawks have just the one game this weekend when hosting Bees IHC tomorrow (5.30pm) with Matty Davies expecting his players to react positively to last Sunday’s shoot-out loss at home to Telford Tigers, a result which ended their 100 per cent start to the campaign.

The Bees – who head to Solway Sharks on Saturday night – also saw their unbeaten start come to an end last Sunday, losing out 3-2 to Leeds Knights, the only team left with a 100 per cent record in 2023-24.

The Seahawks coach is understandably pleased with how his team have opened up, but admits it is a work in progress as he strives to find the right combinations up and down the line-up.

"There’s still things there that I think I need to find, the right mix and everything,” said Davies, who loses forward Jordan Fisher to a two-game suspension. “We’ve got a lot of good players in there who can play anywhere up and down the line-up and that’s a good problem to have.

"Overall it’s been a good start for us and, ideally, we’d like to have beaten Telford, obviously, and we probably did enough to win.

"It will be another difficult night against Bees – they’ve got some good players this year and we’re going to have to be better than we were against Telford in order to get back to winning ways.

"This start is not about getting carried away and thinking that we’re going to go unbeaten - there’s a lot of good teams in the league this year and they are all going to take points off each other. It’s going to be a real difficult slog, but I’m expecting a reaction off the lads after last week.”