Brown confident of Wigan victory

Huddersfield captain Kevin Brown believes his side can send out a message to the traditional big guns with victory over Stobart Super League leaders Wigan at the Galpharm Stadium on Friday night.

The unfancied Giants will leapfrog the 2010 champions into top spot if they can complete the double, following their 20-16 victory at the DW Stadium in the opening round back in February, and Brown says confidence is high.

"Wigan, along with a few other teams, have been the benchmark, winning both competitions in the past two years, but we beat them at the beginning of the season so there is no reason we can't do it again," he said. "You want to play well every week but you especially want to play well against the top teams and I think so far this year we have proved we can do that."

Wigan coach Shaun Wane, shocked by his team's casualness in their earlier defeat by the Giants, insists they will be better prepared this time and has pinpointed former Wigan favourite Brown as the man they need to watch.

"I have watched quite a lot of Huddersfield games and they are playing really well, especially Kevin Brown," he said. "We need to make sure we stop them playing.

"We faced the Giants at the start of the year and we got beat mentally. We were not prepared to work hard that day and that can never happen again."

Bradford will also be out to avenge a surprise home defeat when they take on Salford at the City of Salford Stadium.

"They turned us over at Odsal in March and that's certainly been mentioned this week," said Bulls boss Mick Potter. "We'd love to do better this time around but they're a quality team.

"They've got players you need to worry about. Guys like Luke Patten, Daniel Holdsworth and Matty Smith can turn a game on its head and in Holdsworth and Smith they have two of the best kickers in the competition."

Salford need to halt a five-match losing run if they are to keep alive their play-off hopes by catching eighth-placed Bradford.