Sheffield Steelers head coach Aaron Fox speaks out over 'toxic' criticism of 'courageous' rivals Nottingham Panthers

It followed Steelers’ hard-fought 3-2 win on Saturday night over a Panthers team rooted to the bottom of the standings and – ahead of Sunday’s round of matches – having won just once in 15 games.

Fox’s emotional post-match interview came just days after Panthers’ assistant coach Kevin Moore had revealed that a chief reason behind the team’s struggles remained their continuing struggle to come to terms with the tragic on-ice death of team-mate Adam Johnson, which happened when the two teams met in Sheffield in a Challenge Cup group game back in October.

The team’s performances had led some fans to criticise the players in recent weeks, something labelled as “toxic b*******” by Fox on Saturday night.

“I’ve seen some of the toxic b******* being said about that group of guys in there and it kind of p***** me off a little bit,” said a visibly angry Fox, who also said a number of Steelers’ players had continued to struggle with the tragedy.

“There’s some toxic people in this world and I’m happy after that game tonight (Saturday) that the standing ovation they did get shows they do have some unbelievable fans here that are supporting that group.

“That is a courageous group of guys. Every single one of them could have walked out of this situation three months ago and nobody would have batted an eye.

“And I know for a fact that they didn’t want to leave each other, they wanted to get through this together.

“Grief is a very, very hard thing. We were there with them in that situation but the layer that they’ve had added on top of our layer … they lost a friend, they lost a-team-mate

“And for people to s*** on them is pretty messed up, man. There’s some bad people out there and I just want them to know that I have a lot of respect for that staff and those players in that room.”

On the ice, the Steelers were pushed all the way by the hosts, who responded to goals by Zach Vinnell and Mitchell Balmas by pulling themselves level with just over 15 minutes remaining with two strikes from Hugo Roy.

But Balmas made it two for the night for himself when he got the Steelers back ahead just under two minutes later by beating Rok Stojanovič thanks to an excellent Robert Dowd pass.

The result ensured the Steelers remain 13 points clear at the top of the regular season standings ahead of Sunday’s game at home to Dundee Stars (4pm face-off).