WARRINGTON Wolves will be hoping to begin their World Club Series preparations with a winning performance at Hull FC tomorrow, Friday.

They travel with the same 19-man squad Tony Smith named for a Super League opening-day win over Salford Red Devils, despite a fit-again Matty Russell missing out.

First-team coach Richard Agar says there is room for improvement at the KC Stadium, kick off 8pm, especially with St George Illawarra Dragons lurking for the February 20 clash.

“It would be great to get into next week in the right frame of mind and on the front foot,” said the former Black and Whites head coach.

“It’s been a short week. We were quite happy with the performance against Salford, but not entirely. We still see a lot of improvement on both sides of the ball.

“The emphasis has been on recovery, we’ve had a good look at Hull and got plenty of video work done.”

Agar is expecting a DVD of St George’s weekend Charity Shield draw with South Sydney Rabbitohs to arrive shortly, and is sure Paul McGregor will have done his homework on Wolves.

“I’m pretty certain they will have got the footage from last week and if they’re in the vicinity a trip to Hull might be on the cards,” he added.

“We’ve got the Charity Shield game against South Sydney on its way and I actually attended a couple of games out there last year – one that Ashton Sims played in.

“We’ve had a look at some of the stuff from last year and it’ll be interesting to see if there are any similar traits this season.”

Wolves face a Hull side in high spirits after an opening day nilling of Huddersfield Giants.

“It was a terrific win,” said Agar. “They’ll bring a different style of football offensively to Salford.

“Watching them from the pre-season trial game against Hull KR to what we saw against Huddersfield, they’ve improved a lot from their last hit out.

“They were solid across the park, particularly the back row of Mark Minichiello, Gareth Ellis, who had an enormous game, and Joe Westerman with his running, getting his hands on the ball and leading the line for them.”

Wolves, who will make the M62 trip on Friday lunchtime, remain without long-term absentee Simon Grix, while Anthony England is expected to miss both the Hull FC and St George encounters.

“It might be a rush to get Anthony ready for next week, which is a shame after a good pre-season,” explained Agar.

“He’s highly doubtful for next weekend too. Matty’s had them (his teeth) done, so he is good to go.”

A number of the Dragons squad arrived at Manchester Airport yesterday, with more due in today, Thursday.

Wolves 19: Roy Asotasi, Ryan Atkins, Chris Bridge, Daryl Clark, Ben Currie, Ben Evans, Rhys Evans, Ben Harrison, Micky Higham, Chris Hill, James Laithwaite, Joel Monaghan, Richie Myler, Gareth O’Brien, Kevin Penny, Stefan Ratchford, Ashton Sims, Ben Westwood, Gary Wheeler.