Sheffield Steelers coach Aaron Fox not fooled by Guildford Flames' start to Elite League campaign

The two teams meet at The Spectrum on Sunday evening, with seven places separating regular season leaders the Steelers and their hosts.

But, crucially, there are only four points between the two teams, a sign of the growing quality and competitiveness of the UK’s top tier.

Steelers saw a six-game winning streak ended with a 2-1 defeat at home to Glasgow Clan last week.

The same team - perhaps the epitome of inconsistency this season – headed down to Surrey on Wednesday night and were roundly beaten 7-2.

Consistency is something that has also eluded the Flames so far this season, hence their current position. They have lost nine of their 13 league games – four of them in either overtime or a shootout – but Fox isn’t fooled and expects Paul Dixon’s team to be challenging at the top end of the table before too long.

“The table is definitely misleading,” said Fox, who earlier this week saw forward Kameron Kielly leave the club to pursue opportunities back home in North America.

“They are a very good hockey team, very good on the rush. I’ve always felt like they are going to be a top four team this year, so where they are in the standings is definitely misleading.

“They beat Glasgow 7-2 in midweek and we’ve watched that game and they looked fast and handed it to Glasgow pretty good.

“So it is always a tough place to play, we know we’re going to have to be ready.”