Wakefield Wildcats: Confidence high after breaking Qualifiers duck – Anderson

CONFIDENCE IS booming in Wakefield Trinity Wildcats’ camp ahead of Saturday’s crucial trip to Leigh Centurions, prop Scott Anderson says.
Scott AndersonScott Anderson
Scott Anderson

Wildcats will travel to Leigh Sports Village determined to avenge this year’s embarrassing Ladbrokes Challenge Cup exit and take another step towards First Utility Super League survival.

Wakefield got off the mark in the Qualifiers last weekend with a 48-18 thrashing of Bradford Bulls, who finished as runners-up to Leigh on the Kingstone Press Championship table.

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Saturday could be a rehearsal for the fourth versus fifth million pound match, with whoever wins this week having home advantage in that one-off shoot-out for the final place in next year’s top-flight.

“We had a good week at training and we went into the game very positive,” Anderson said of the win over Bradford.

“To get the win really convincingly was a good motivator for us.

“Hopefully it will breed a bit of confidence in the team and we can work our way up the league.

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“Hopefully we won’t need to worry about that million pound game, but if it comes to that, we’ll be ready for it.

“We are doing well at the moment and we can look forward to this week’s game against Leigh.”

Wildcats tore Bulls apart inside the opening half an hour, racing into a 30-0 lead.

That built on a positive second half against Salford Red Devils the previous week, when Wakefield led twice after going in at the break 10 points behind.

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“I think we’re just building,” Anderson said. “We’ve been building into this middle-eight and I think the last two performances have been pretty solid.

“We were disappointed we didn’t win at Salford, but we came out and worked hard at the weekend and got the job done.”

Half-backs Jacob Miller and Tim Smith tormented Bradford’s defence, after Wildcats’ pack had laid a platform.

Anderson said: “In the first half and hour I think me and Scrutes [Nick Scruton] and Mickael Simon were really positive and using the ball a little bit more than we normally do. We did some good work, so the halves can do their plays and their tricky stuff. But there’s still work to do, like there always is.

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“There were patches in the game that, looking back, were a bit disappointing.

“But we can work on that and we’ve got a big week ahead before we go to Leigh. I think we are in a good position to go there and play some good football.”