'Don't hand EIHL title to Cardiff Devils,' says Sheffield Steelers coach

The Welsh team led the league, one point above Sheffield, when administrators decided to close the programme down because of coronavirus.

Devils had the same number of wins as Steelers but had lost fewer and were in the box seat, with three matches in hand.

Some Steelers personnel felt their own team had lost too many games in the first two weeks of February to challenge Cardiff.

Then the pandemic arrived and left the League with no alternative but to shut down before the 2019-20 season had run its course.

It was a blow to everyone, not least of all Cardiff. They had overtaken Steelers at the top of the EIHL on Friday, March 6, by hammering them 7-3 at the Viola Arena.

Sheffield had five games left unplayed on their fixture list, but Devils had eight...and were obvious favourites before the cancellation kicked in.

This week, the EIHL floated the idea of staging a "Magic 5" Weekend in Nottingham to start the 2020/21 season - the event effectively taking place of the previous campaign's play offs.

Fox admits it has been a challenging situation for all concerned in the sport.

And he has great respect for the Cardiff club.

But the coach said: "My opinion is that I don't think anyone would be awarded the League title.

"There was too much hockey left to play, before it was shut down.

"I might have been saying something different if we had won the League game on the Friday though!

"But, to be fair, you look at the previous season - and that wasn't won until the very end."

Fox was referring to how the 2018-19 championship went down to the wire on the final day of the regular season; Coventry Blaze's 3–1 home victory over Devils handed the league title to the Giants, based on a formula of regulation wins (39 to 38.)

The Steelers' coach said dramatic events like that had happened at the business-end of other seasons and in other leagues.

And when he looked at what Sheffield's likely "win probability" would have been, he felt confident his team could have done well in scheduled games against Manchester Storm, Dundee Stars (twice each) and Cardiff.

Brian Parker, one of the men who have been behind Devils over the last six years, has a different view.

He tweeted: "I was surprised that the @cardiffdevils weren't awarded the League Trophy, so let me take this moment to tell @AndrewLord17 (coach) and our players that fought so hard, WE WON!"

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