We had good news bad news in the Steelers camp with three great results beating Basingstoke twice and Cardiff on Boxing Day, the bad news was that our leading player Ashley Tait was knocked out in the game against Belfast leaving him out of the line up for maybe two weeks.

When Ashley went down we all knew that it was a bad one, he never moved on the ice, his brother Warren was the first off the bench and over to him. He was first as every other member of the team was heading in the direction of Brad Voth, the 6'5 Cardiff forward who hit Ashley so very late with a nasty elbow to the head. Steve Munn was first to get to Voth, they had already fought earlier, and did so again. I think Brad was lucky to be kicked out of the game by the referee otherwise the whole of Sheffield would have wanted a bit of him

We all play a tough game, we all enjoy that side of the game, we all know there is a role for the tough guys, we have a great tough guy in Jeremy Cornish. However there wasn't anything tough about what Brad did to Ashley, that wasn't tough, it was cheap and I would imagine and hope that he will get a very lengthy ban for his actions.

We were 2-1 down at the time, what ever happened with Ash I think we would have won the game, we're better than Cardiff as we have proved all year. However what happened to Ash fired us all up so much, we came out in the 2nd period and were all over the Devils, we played some great hockey in that spell scoring three quick goals and going ahead.

Now though we have to look to the two biggest games of the year on Saturday in Nottingham and on Sunday in Coventry, both without Ash. We have to win for Ash, they are his two former clubs as well. We are just 4 points behind the Blaze now though have a game in hand, so we need these 4 points this weekend, we have to beat Coventry and they are now having their players come back from injury.

As Captain I must try even harder, I try to lead by example rather than yelling and shouting, for me these are two huge games and for my team they are as well. One thing about this Steelers team is that guys don't need reminding, they all know the importance. They know that with Ash out and Jeff Legue hurt as well it will be their responsability to do that bit extra on Saturday and Sunday

I don't think we will be found wanting, there is a good feeling in that room right now, they know that this is the time, this is our time, now it's up to us