Sheffield Steelers: Davey Phillips thanks 'brilliant' travelling fans for Challenge Cup final support

Both sets of fans gave their all in the Viola Arena.

But such was the volume from the away support, that Davey Phillips felt it was more like a home game.

The wave of noise helped channel Steelers towards a 4-3 win - which represented the club's 28th trophy since it was founded.

Phillips, a resolute defenceman who tries not to give attackers an inch of room near Tomas Duba's net, described the travelling support as "brilliant...a huge factor" in the victory.

"It is a difficult building to come play at, they do have loud passionate fans and I think we outsung them all game," said the GB skater.

"Obviously, it is Cardiff's building but I thought it felt like a home game with our fans.

"We all really appreciate it."

Phillips recalled the double overtime win over Cardiff in the play off final of 2017.

"It was what spurred us on to keep us going and give us that little bit of energy," he said, adding the fans had replicated that last Sunday.

He said in the dying minutes of a one-goal game vocal support gives the team extra drive to keep going.

"You are not just doing it for yourself and your team team mates you are doing it for them too," he said.

"All I want to say is thank you very much for coming and you did yourselves proud.”

Phillips was emotionally drained after the final hooter.

He said Devils always have a push-back if they go behind (on Sunday they were 3-0 down) adding: "They are a great team when they get rolling I thought we just absorbed the pressure, scored some goals in big periods of the game and Dubes (Duba) played unbelievable."

Phillips said the strong mentality of the team was vital.

"When we are bringing it every shift all the way through the full 60 we know we are a really good team.

"Sometimes we just have some little off periods in games but (on Sunday) we did a full 60.

"When we do, we know we are capable of winning trophies.

"We know we have a quality team and I feel we let ourselves down in the league with some of our results but we worked hard to put ourselves in the situation to be in the final. It is a one-off game and we'll back ourselves against anyone in a one-off game."

He described the league title as "not unreachable but it would be difficult."

They would keep plugging away and hopefully top-placed Cardiff would slip up. There was always the play offs too, he said.

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