I CAN’T think of a better way to clinch the League Leaders’ Shield than by beating Wigan Warriors at The Halliwell Jones Stadium.

With a fierce rivalry going back to the game’s birth, a chance to show Shaun Wane and his troops ‘here is what you could have won’ would go down well in my book.

It’s always a good feeling to get one over the old enemy, even more so when the stakes are higher.

Problem is, Wigan want what Warrington want.

The cherry and whites are not just visiting The Halliwell Jones Stadium to be party poopers, because only a win keeps alive their own hopes of winning one of only three pieces of silverware on offer at the back end of a season in this most testing of sporting environments.

So often the shield is ridiculed as the ‘hubcap’, literally for its design and metaphorically for its merit, by fans of teams who don’t win it.

That is merely banter in the face of jealousy – or if their side goes on to win the Grand Final it becomes an attempt to belittle the worth of finishing top but missing out on being crowned champions.

In recent years I believe the recognition and plaudits from winning the LLS have deservedly grown though.

After all, it wasn’t that long ago that the team finishing top of the pile were deemed to be the Championship winners. In fact, it was Bradford Bulls in 1997 (how times have changed!).

But when you consider everything that goes into a campaign, the team that can prove themselves to be the most consistent over eight months of bone-crunching, sweat-curdling and energy-sapping toil should be celebrated.

The fans’ relationship with the value of the LLS has probably been helped by five different clubs finding room for it in their trophy cabinet since 2011, when Warrington won it for the first and only time.

I know it meant a lot to Wolves and their fans at the end of that record-breaking season, and it should do again if The Wire deliver the goods tomorrow or, if necessary, when they would get a second bite of the cherry at Hull FC next week.

For the neutrals, it would be prime viewing if it went down to the wire with the winner taking all at the KCOM Stadium on Friday, September 23. And if it came to it there would be some pleasure in lifting the shield on Hull turf in front of their fans after what happened in the Challenge Cup Final at Wembley last month.

But I’ve got no interest in satisfying the taste buds of neutrals on this one.

Quite simply it would be a special night for The Wire to do it in front of their own supporters and in the process preventing the bitterest of rivals any chance of adding the 2016 shield to their honours board.

Get the job done boys, leave nothing to chance!