Steelers must move on quickly, says Tait

The Steelers thumped their arch-rivals into submission at the Motorpoint Arena on Thursday night, gaining swift revenge for a 3-2 defeat after a shoot-out in Nottingham on Boxing Day.

Thursday’s win cut the gap between fourth-placed Steelers and Elite League leaders Nottingham to nine points, with the South Yorkshire club having two games in hand.

Not surprisingly given the occasion, the game was not without incident, with Nottingham’s Kelsey Wilson yesterday being handed a three-game ban by the league’s disciplinary committee for his witless slash which poleaxed Steelers’ Simon Ferguson as the home side celebrated going 2-1 ahead in the 16th minute.

Tomorrow sees Steelers play host to Coventry Blaze (5pm) in a game they will be expected to win, even more so with Paul Thompson’s team missing captain and key forward Shea Guthrie through injury.

“It was a great win against Nottingham,” said Tait. “Yes, we won, but we can’t afford to get too high on that. Yes, we lost last week against Belfast but, by the same token, we can’t worry too much about that – you just have to try to keep an even keel.

“We need to move on quickly from Thursday and focus on what’s in front of us next.

“Coventry are missing a couple of players, but they are always a team who will cause problems.

“They like to mix it up and keep it physical but, as we saw on Thursday against Nottingham, we are a gritty bunch ourselves and have guys in that locker room who aren’t afraid to do the same and stand up for their team-mates when called on.”