Bateman: Bring out the best
- John Bateman gave his thoughts ahead of Friday’s derby game against St Helens at the DW Stadium.
- Bateman: “You can’t take a backward step at all, it’s all about going forward and getting stuck into each other, playing the game and not the emotion.”
- You can still get tickets for Friday’s game, all the information on pricing and how to buy can be found HERE.
John Bateman says the Wigan team are ‘looking forward’ to Friday’s derby game against St Helens, in what will be the 100th meeting between the two sides in all competitions in the Super League era.
“They’re full on,” he said, “You can’t take a backward step at all, it’s all about going forward and getting stuck into each other, playing the game and not the emotion. We’re really looking forward to it, these are the kind of games you want to be playing in week in, week out.
“For me personally, I enjoy them. I enjoy the bigger and tougher games and I know the teams do as well, it’s alright playing like last week and putting the points on – the supporters like watching tries but I think as a professional sports person you like the tougher games. This game will definitely bring the best out of us.”
Wigan are unbeaten at the DW Stadium in 2022, and Bateman said the team are striving to keep this going until the end of the season: “We’ve spoken a bit about how well we’ve been doing at home and we just want to keep it up, there are two more games at the DW and hopefully we’ll have another one in the play-offs.
“Something we spoke about a bit was making it a bit of a fortress as our home ground. It’s a big thing for us personally, going out there on Friday with them knowing that they can win League Leaders that’s another thing that we need to stop them doing, the shield is out of our hands now but we don’t want them winning it at our place.”
With over 18,000 tickets sold the game is gearing up to be a thriller on Friday night: “It’ll be massive for us if we can get as many people down. It’s a local derby, it’ll be loud and hopefully, Saints will bring a lot as well. The crowd gets behind us and it can really take us on into the game, it’s a huge game and we’re really looking forward to it.”
Over 18,000 tickets have been sold so far, with the South Stand close to sell out in what will be the 100th meeting between the two teams in all competitions during the Super League era. Don’t miss out, get your tickets HERE.
