AARON FOX is looking to tackle the “finer details” as he looks for Sheffield Steelers to bounce back their first defeat of the season.

Prior to Wednesday night’s Motorpoint Elite League trip to Guildford Flames, the Steelers had gone unbeaten in their first four games, jumping on the coach to Surrey feeling good after a 6-1 win at Glasgow Clan on Sunday night.

But they headed home on the wrong end of a 7-4 scoreline against the Flames, despite having taken the lead three times in the first 40 minutes.

While not as fluid as they had been at times in previous performances this season, Fox admitted his players took a slight step back in midweek.

But, given we are at such an early stage of the 2026-27 season, there is plenty of time for the Steelers to right any wrongs in their game.

On the whole, Fox is satisfied with his team’s start, but knows they will need to improve this weekend when they return to Challenge Cup group action - first at home to Cardiff Devils before an often tricky trip to Coventry Blaze.

“The game on Wednesday left us with a bunch of stuff to work on, just little details in our game that I felt like we had gotten better with, but maybe just took a step back,” said Fox.

“It was just one of those nights where we've got to be better and make harder plays and harder and better decisions.”

RESPONSE: Aaron Fox saw his Sheffield Steelers fall to their first defeat of the season at Guildford on Wednesday. Picture: Hayley Roberts/Steelers Media.

placeholder image — RESPONSE: Aaron Fox saw his Sheffield Steelers fall to their first defeat of the season at Guildford on Wednesday. Picture: Hayley Roberts/Steelers Media.

Having had a good look at Cardiff in pre-season - the Devils prevailing on both occasions - Fox is aware of the threat they pose coming into Sheffield on Saturday night.

They too suffered on the road at the hands of Guildford, going down 5-1 at the Spectrum last Saturday, although they bounced back with a 5-3 win at home to Nottingham Panthers on Friday night.

Naturally, Fox expects the Devils to be in amongst the contenders for silverware once again.

“They’ve got a bunch of returning guys coming back, only made a couple changes, so I think concept-wise and system-wise, they're probably a bit ahead of most other teams because of that,” added Fox. “They’ve got depth and good defencemen on the ba - a very, very strong team top to bottom.

“And they play to a certain style that if you're not ready to go, they'll wear you down and make you pay too.”

On the challenge of playing in Coventry - who the Steelers beat 6-0 on opening night at the Utilita Arena, Fox added: “It’s always a hard place to play.

“You’ve got to be switched on mentally because things happen really quickly - the transition from offence to defence and defence to offence is very much like Manchester’s old rink was.

“Those two buildings are kind of similar that way where you've really got to dig in and be ready to play because any mistake ends up in a scoring chance against the other way.”