WOLVES must show mental strength if they are to avoid falling victim to the “pressure and anxiety” of the Middle 8s, half-back Kevin Brown says.

The Wire’s Super League future will be decided over the next seven games, starting with a trip to neighbours Widnes Vikings tomorrow, Friday.

Brown is the only first-team regular at the club to have experienced a Middle 8s campaign previously when he captained tomorrow’s opponents to safety in 2015.

The England international was in bullish mood about Wolves’ chances of replicating that effort and says they are aiming for a maximum points haul.

“Starting from scratch means you can’t take anything for granted. Every game is a Million Pound Game,” he said.

“If you had to jump a metre on the floor, you’d do it every time and it would be easy.

“If you were asked to do the same 100 feet up in the air, that’s when you start panicking a little bit.

“That’s the way I describe the pressure and anxiety that can come with these games.

“If we can stay strong mentally and focus on what’s in front of us, we’ll be fine.

“We’ve had a long time now to realise where we’re at.

“We could start sulking and thinking we shouldn’t be here, but the reality is we’re here because we’ve not played well enough.

“We need to make sure we show some character now and perform in the Middle 8s. We’ve won our last three, we want seven from seven in this next phase now.”

The 32-year-old returned from a foot injury to help The Wire to a 22-6 victory over their neighbours in their final Super League regular round fixture on July 20.

Brown says the team that took the field in that game played with “a lot more structure” than his previous appearance, a 44-4 hammering at Huddersfield on June 4.

He also believes a two-week break from fixtures has reinvigorated the Wolves squad.

“Things just look so much more fluent now we’ve got an actual centre playing on the right edge in Peta Hiku,” he said.

“It’s allowed Jack Hughes to move back into the second row where we need him most.

“We’re playing with a bit more structure now and it’s developing all the time.

“When you’ve played a long season like we have, having a break freshens you up physically and mentally.

“We’re flying on our fitness, Jon Clarke made sure we did a bit of training while we were away!

“We’ve had a great week in training this week and we will take that into the game on Friday.”

Barring any last-minute injury, Brown will play his first game at the Halton Stadium since leaving Widnes for Warrington in December.

He has missed the two previous trips, the pre-season friendly in December and the 19-10 Super League victory on April 13, through injury.

The ex-Vikings skipper expects his old side to be in the best possible shape tomorrow night and highlighted Warrington-born Joe Mellor, his former half-back partner, as the man to stop.

“We’re expecting Widnes to be really good, they are coached really well by Denis Betts and Brett Hodgson,” he said.

“They’ve also got good players like Chris Houston and Rangi Chase coming back so we’re expecting a really tough game.

“Joe’s running threat is obvious coming back inside off his right foot.

“We got done by that a couple of times in the last game, but I’m confident in the work we’ve done.

“If we do what we’ve spoken about doing, there won’t be a repeat of that this week.”