NATHAN Brown wants his charges to show the home fans what they’re made of when they take on Wigan this Monday.
Langtree Park hasn’t been a happy hunting ground for Saints this season but the Club’s head coach believes they can do a lot better when their biggest rivals come to town.
And they’ll be fresh after a weekend off too.
“We’d rather be playing in a cup quarter final but the rest will have done the players good,” Brown said. “The aging players get a rest, which is important, whilst it isn’t too bad for the younger ones who have played more footy.
“We got through a fair bit of training over the back end of last week and came back in this week nice and fresh.
“Our best performances have been away from home. We’ve beaten Bradford, Warrington and Leeds and had a good win against Castleford recently. Our away support has been great but we know the home fans have been turning up and sometimes not seeing us play our best footy.
“It would be great to put in a good home performance against the team they would like us to beat the most.
“I hold out hope, and the players do too, that we can have a good end to the season. We know it hasn’t been smooth sailing so we need to build momentum and confidence as we get closer to it.
“Wigan are a good team, but we need to worry more about ourselves. We’ve had a good month apart from the home game with Hull KR and produced three reasonable performances too. The game isn’t about a marker; it is about us playing consistently well.
“Wigan have got systems they have been using since Mike Maguire was there. All the players do a certain job and that doesn’t change whoever comes in. It is more about what is coming at you and if you are good enough to stop that.”
Brown expects Jon Wilkin to remain involved in the halves whilst he has a number of options at nine.
Anthony Laffranchi is due back this week but it’s not clear whether he will be involved on Monday.
“Adam Swift has been doing a great job at Whitehaven, Gary Wheeler is training with the team after a run out at Rochdale and Anthony Walker has played a couple of games too. Ade Gardner is still recovering from the head injury he sustained at Huddersfield,” Brown added.
Tickets for Monday’s match, which kicks off at 7.45pm, are now on sale.
You can get yours from the Ticket Office at Langtree Park, by calling 01744 455 052 or by logging on here.
