Leeds Knights coach Dave Whistle happy being picked by Sheffield Steeldogs for Autumn Cup semi-final

The Steeldogs were ranked the No 1 team in the competition after finishing top of the group standings earlier this month.

That meant they were given the option of who to face in the last four, with Steeldogs’ head coach Greg Wood opting for their nearest rivals.

The first leg of the tie will be held at Ice Sheffield on Wednesday, November 10 (7.30pm) with the return match in Leeds 48 hours later at Elland Road Ice Arena (7.30pm).

Telford Tigers and Swindon Wildcats will face-off in the other semi-final.

The Yorkshire rivals first met in pre-season in Leeds when the hosts won 4-3, but Sheffield gained revenge and with it top spot in the Autumn Cup standings when they deservedly prevailed 6-3 in South Yorkshire 10 days ago.

Whistle said the decision to keep the tie local made sense, both in order to continue building up the rivalry as well as for practical reasons.

“We’ve both had very good starts to the season,” said Whistle. “Overall I think both teams will be quite happy with how they sit and we’re both similar in that we score a lot of goals and create a lot of offensive chances. I also think they rely quite heavily on their goaltending like we do with Sammy (Gospel), so it’s a good match-up overall.

“To be honest, it’s nice that we are playing Sheffield as we don’t have to travel that far then and we should both get good-sized crowds from it

“This is a semi-pro league where a lot of players work and have full-time jobs.

“And if you’re playing midweek games it is difficult for some guys to get there and you don’t want to be missing guys in a semi-final, so the fact both games will be quite close fore both teams is a good thing.

“It doesn’t matter which way round the ties are and it should be quite intense with both games being so close to each other inside three days.”