ellis, manu and talanoa all named in fridays squad

Having followed us all season it's a minor miracle that we are in this position. With no Lockers, Sam or Micky Mac (not to mention Manfredi, Flower, Clubb, Joel or Mossop) this maybe a game too far.

But I've started to think in recent weeks that it will be a Saints/Wigan final - not at all what Sky want.

You've got 4 pretty battered sides out there and even though we are missing a load of players Hull will certainly be carrying injuries. Same for Saints and Wire. What is beyond doubt is the will to win instilled in the group by Wane. Criticise him all you like but I reckon win or lose getting us to second in the table over 30 games is his biggest achievement to date. Wigan won't go down without a fight. The game is sure to be close, and we've shown time after time that we possess the bottle to edge it.

The bookies have us at 1/2 favourites which I find mystifying. I've invested a settler on Hull at 15/8 to guard against disappointment. Either way I'm looking forward to a great night at the DW. Let's raise the roof and give the lads some great support.

There's a kind of siege mentality that Wane has manufactured well, at least looking from the outside in anyway.

Folk say we havent played well since Wembley - we were fairly awful for the first hour of that game too. I would strip it even further back and say we have ben a shadow of ourselves since the Wigan semi. That was the most brutal game of the season by far.

We took 6,300 to Leigh on a Saturday afternoon live on SKY against a London team with no support and no chance of progress to the final. It was a sure thing - we won 70-0.

You could argue that it's poor, but it's about normal. If we had played Saints at Leigh it would have been 14-15k on allowing for their similar sized support.