Warrington Wolves boss Tony Smith hopes the derby atmosphere will bring the best out of his players against Wigan Warriors

The Wire welcome their great rivals to The Halliwell Jones Stadium hoping to get their first Super League victory of the season to move off the foot of the table.

It will be the two clubs’ first meeting since the Warriors’ 12-6 triumph over Wolves in last year’s Grand Final at Old Trafford.

With a large crowd expected, Smith says it will be hard for the players not to be lifted by the fans’ backing.

“There’s a great rivalry, the fact that it’s last year’s two finalists doesn’t play a big part but it does tell you that it’s two successful, competitive clubs,” he said.

“It usually brings out the best in both teams, hopefully that’s the case again this week.

“Atmosphere brings out the best in most people. Sometimes it can add to some nerves but most rugby league players lift to the occasion and its hard not to.

“We had a packed ground against Brisbane and it certainly helped us.

“Night games and the excitement around them lift us and hopefully there will be a huge crowd that will be right behind us.”

While Wigan go into the game having won all three of their league games as well as the World Club Challenge, they have been beset by injuries in the backs division.

Joe Burgess, Lewis Tierney and Dom Manfredi will all miss the game to leave Warriors without a senior winger, while centre Oliver Gildart will join them on the sidelines.

However, Smith believes they will still be facing a highly dangerous Warriors side.

“There’s some inexperience in there but they usually come up with some good replacements in the three-quarter department,” he said.

“Liam Marshall is an exciting young player and could be a potential strength for them.

“We’ll eye each other up, we’re both missing a few but we both have some enthusiastic young people in there.

“Wigan have changed their style and are not just playing ‘the Wigan way’, there’s a lot of unpredictability about the way they play now.

“Williams is a big part of that, Gelling adds to that and they’ve got a lot of different dimensions to their game now and they are a lot more attractive to watch.”

The game marks a first short turnaround of the season for The Wire, coming only five days after their 24-14 defeat at Salford Red Devils.

Smith’s side have had one less day to prepare for the game than their neighbours, but Smith feels this will not have too much of an influence.

“It would have been nice to have a little longer to get over games,” he said.

“It’s tough for players to get over the strains of sport at this time of the year.

“We’ve only had one less day than Wigan, it’s not ideal for either but we’ve got to do it and hopefully we can get out there and make a good fist of it.”