The Sheffield Steelers' marksman turns 33 next month but is in no rush to contemplate hanging up the skates.

Talking on website-video at thestar.co.uk the super-fit skater said he felt he still had years left in him and that he wanted to win the league title during his remaining time at Sheffield.

He said he had no hankering to see out the sunset of his career at any of his former clubs like Nottingham Panthers or Coventry Blaze.

"You can never say never . . . but I hope to be here for a little while longer" he said.

"I don't know how many years I am going to play, but we have still got Tony Hand kicking around at 40... if I last that long it will be great but that's another seven years away so we'll have to wait and see!"

Tait had an excellent Play Off series for Steelers last year, yet scored only once in the final nine games of the season.

He said it was a "big key" that he and his team-mates got off to a good start: "It is important that we are ready to go straight away. There was a little bit of inconsistency early on and it hurt us in the end."

Tait said that he was sorry to have seen Dan Tessier leave adding: "He was a good player (with) great offensive capabilities. He's not selfish, he's a player who will always give you the puck, he's gone but we've all got faith in Matty's (coach Dave Matsos) recruiting and he's going to bring somebody in who is a worthy replacement."

The fact that Matsos had retained the nucleus of last year's team would help their consistency, as it did last season with Coventry.

"We've a couple of new faces, but we've added well and kept a lot of quality, if we can get things together quickly I think we'll be alright."

The forward added that he was "definitely optimistic" that his side could win the league.

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