Preview:
Salford v Wigan (C. Cup R5)

Super League strugglers Wigan have the opportunity to cast aside their relegation worries when they take on Salford in the fifth round of the Powergen Challenge Cup at The Willows on Friday night.

However, Reds coach Karl Harrison expects the Warriors to treat the tie as their most important match of the season as they look to kick-start their engage Super League campaign.

Brian Noble?s men will be looking to turn around their fortunes on the ground which witnessed the beginning of the end of their domination of rugby league.

Salford, then in the first division under former Wigan favourite Andy Gregory, gained a memorable 26-16 fifth-round Cup win in 1996 to end Wigan?s record eight-year unbeaten run in the competition.

Ten years on from their last Challenge Cup meeting, the roles are reversed, with Salford favourites to repeat their League victory over the Warriors earlier this year.

Harrison said: ?At the moment they?re low on confidence and they will use this game to try to build some confidence with a good performance or a good result.

?Their next two League games are against St Helens and Leeds and obviously they need something pretty spectacular to get their season going.

?Brian Noble loves the Challenge Cup and Wigan have a great history in the Cup and they will be looking at this as their biggest game of the season. I?m quite sure of that.

?I?m sure they are wanting to use this game to kick-start their season and so are we but the prizes at the end of the Challenge Cup are enormous.

?The Cup final is still one of the biggest games in the sporting diary of this country.

?Salford have not been there for a lot of years and it?s a competition we?re taking very seriously this year.?

Wigan looked to have turned the corner with their fourth-round victory at Wakefield in April but three successive defeats under Noble have cast them five points adrift of their nearest relegation rivals.

Noble admits Friday?s tie will bring a different kind of pressure and expects his players to be hardened by their recent struggles.

?It?s a different challenge,? he said. ?The Challenge Cup is exciting but, in relation to where we?re going, it?s just another game.

?The pressure is about the same it has been. These blokes are having to play in a cup-tie every week at the moment.

?The do-or-die nature of the cup has been with this team for a while so they shouldn?t be distracted by that pressure.

?I think we?re improving and there are certain things we?ve worked on this week which should help us some more.?

Salford have not played in a Cup final for 37 years and they go into the game with added motivation, with several players out to prove a point to the Great Britain coach.

Harrison is irked none of the high-flying Reds made it into Noble?s 36-strong training squad and believes David Hodgson, Andy Coley, Mal Alker and Simon Finnigan in particular ought to feel aggrieved.

He said: ?They?ve got a perfect chance to show the Great Britain coach what they?re about.

?We see them week in, week out and because we?ve not been in so many big games over the past few years possibly they have been overlooked.

?If you want to play for your country, you have to play well in big games and it?s up to these guys to do it.?

Noble accepts some of the Reds players may have extra incentive but insists they could yet be considered for selection.

?We?ve discussed two or three of their players and they are still in the picture,? he said.

One surprise inclusion in the Great Britain squad, Wigan second rower Gareth Hock, makes his comeback from a 15-month injury lay-off in Friday?s match.

?We?re going to have to use him,? said Noble. ?In an ideal world we may not have but we?re not flush with players and we have four cup-tied.?

Salford make just one change to the side that lost for the fourth time in five games at Huddersfield, with second rower Ian Sibbit starting his first match for five weeks.

Salford City Reds v Wigan Warriors, The Willows, Friday May 19 2006

Salford 18-man squad: Fitzpatrick, Hodgson, Moule, Dunemann, Robinson, Coley, Alker, Finnigan, Sibbit, Charles, Highton, Wilshere, Haggerty, Littler, Myler, Baldwin, Brocklehurst, Clayton.

Wigan 18-man squad: Ashton, Dallas, Fletcher, Godwin, Goulding, Hargreaves, Higham, Logan, Moran, O?Loughlin, Orr, Paleaaesina, Richards, Seu Seu, Tickle, Tomkins, Vaealiki, Hock.

Referee: P Bentham