Sheffield Steelers v Fife Flyers: Why captain Robert Dowd is under no illusions about promising Elite League start

While the Steelers’ Great Britain forward acknowledges the result was a significant step in the right direction, he is not naive enough to think it warrants anything more than just that.

Yes, the Steelers are comfortably clear of a group of eight Elite League teams from third to bottom that are separated by just five points.

Once again, the Steelers are the hunted at this stage of the season. The challenge is to finally deliver on a season that has again offered much promise and ensure they are still ahead of the pack come the end of March.

As has been proven in the last two seasons since Covid, that will be no easy task.

But Dowd has been around long enough to see the signs. And, ahead of a weekend which sees the Steelers play host to Fife Flyers tonight (7pm) before heading to Scotland to take on the Dundee Stars, he currently only sees positive ones.

“It’s very tight in the standings, I don’t think I’ve ever seen this league so tight before,” said the 35-year-old.

“But we can’t get too comfortable being sat where we are. We just need to make sure we take it weekend by weekend and come away with wins on a regular basis and, hopefully, everything else will take care of itself.

“We have had a great season so far, but there is such a long way to go. The Belfast game, I thought we were very, very good.

“We were clinical in front of their net and the defence were unbelievable – to win in that fashion was fantastic. No season is made from just one game, but it was a very good step in the right direction.”

Belfast – currently residing sixth in the table, eight points adrift of the Steelers and having played two games more – will come hard in the second half of the campaign.

Dowd – who has 19 points, including 210 goals, from 19 league and cup games this season – is fully aware of that.

He added: “Their record speaks for itself, they were especially fantastic last season and they are going to be a team that will be competing for trophies again.”

On Saturday’s opponents, Fife – who the Steelers edged past on the road 4-3 last Sunday – Dowd said he expected a tougher proposition than the last time Tom Coolen’s visited the Utilita Arena back in October when the hosts eased to a 5-0 win.

The Flyers, though, do find themselves propping up the EIHL table and arrive in South Yorkshire looking to snap a five-game losing streak in the league.

"They ran us right up until the end last week and we were glad to get out of there with both points,” added Dowd.

“They have made big strides since the first time we played them at ours, so we’ll be expecting a completely different game again.”