Sheffield Steelers super-fan: “This could be the first trophy in the next winning era”

A Sheffield Steelers super-fan says the club’s Challenge Cup win is ‘massive’ for Aaron Fox’s side as his belief for a new successful era has grown.

Steelers beat Cardiff Devils 4-3 on Sunday evening to secure their first Challenge Cup in 17 years just 48 hours after Sheffield lost-out to the Devils 7-3 in the Elite League.

Craig Barber was one of the 1,500 Sheffield fans who made the long journey to South Wales.

Craig said: “It’s massive, we travelled down (to Cardiff) on Friday, we drove and stayed over the weekend.

“There were only 100 or a couple of hundred Steelers fans (at Friday’s game). It was a bit gut-wrenching and depressing on how it went but the boys turned it around and did the business on Sunday.

“It obviously means a lot, as it’s the one that got away for a number of years.”

Craig, aged 28, had a Steelers-themed Wedding in August last year as he tied the knot with now-wife Ria, who is also a big Steelers supporter.

Barber said he was hopeful that the Steelers can complete a Challenge Cup and Elite League play-off double.

He added: “I don’t see why we can’t pull it together and go for that as well and get a double, which would be a nice season compared to last year.”

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Steelers have shown huge improvement since Aaron Fox’s arrival at the FlyDSA Arena prior to the 2019/20 season which has impressed Sheffield supporters.

He said: “I’ve been massively impressed, the recruitment has been good, make no mistake we’ve lost players, but they were making errors, or they weren’t quite up to scratch.

“He’s come in and they’ve been replaced with quality players. We’ve done pretty well to say it’s his first season in the league, to have a rebuild year as well and to get some silverware out of it, it’s successful.”

Craig said the Challenge Cup win could be the first of many under head coach Aaron Fox.

He said: “This could be the first trophy in the next winning era, they come in waves, from around 20 years ago we had the Vial’s and the Longstaff era, the Dion Darling’s, the Joey Talbot’s.

“Hopefully, it’s Anthony De Luca and Brendan Connolly, who can be apart of the next dynasty of Steelers players to bring success for the next three, four, five years.”

Sheffield sit second place in the Elite League standings, one point behind leaders Cardiff Devils, who have three games in-hand on Fox’s side.

With just five regular season games remaining Craig admits winning the league might be a big effort for the Sheffield side.

He said: “Personally, I think the league is probably gone, we need a lot of favours from elsewhere now, the league might be a struggle.”

Steelers take on Manchester Storm on Saturday evening with tickets still available for the first game back since the Challenge Cup win, with a face-off at 7:00 PM at the FlyDSA Arena.