Wigan Warriors: Oliver Partington says he'd love to play against St Helens every week

The two teams go head-to-head at the DW Stadium on Friday night, in the fourth meeting between the sides this season.

Partington is expecting a good atmosphere, and hopes the current squad can create some new derby memories.

He said: “Hopefully there will be a big crowd on, all the lads are looking forward to building on our performances.

“They got one over us last time, so it’ll be nice to be on the right side of the result.

“We want to keep building towards the big games, but this is the biggest game right now and everyone’s eyes are on that.

“I’d love to play Saints every week if I could. It’s always class to test yourself against the best to see where you’re at.

“There is always a different feel around the town when we play them, so I’m looking forward to it.

“My main memory of this fixture is when Faz (Liam Farrell) scored in the last minute. Pretty sure it was boiling that day and I burnt my leg because I was in my full kit.

“It was a good day, and that’s probably my earliest memory.

“Faz is always sniffing around that try-line so hopefully he can get one.”

Partington states Wigan are continually trying to improve themselves, as they head into the Saints game on the back of last Friday’s 52-6 victory over Toulouse Olympique.

“We didn’t get the result we wanted the week before against Wakefield,” he added.

“We had a few little fixes that we needed to work on as a team, and we did that.

“We were chasing the performance more than the result, and focusing on ourselves more than Toulouse.

“We speak about the journey a lot and try to improve each week, just getting better. It’s pretty simple, whatever we do wrong, we try and fix it.

“Our goal is to keep improving and building towards the big games at the back end of the year.

“We go back to our culture every week, and that’s something that’s led by the lads and the coaches equally.

“We don’t just talk about performances, we discuss what we can do to be better people, to be better as a whole club.

“We are really good mates and are really tight, which means everyone wants to work for each other whether you are in the squad or not.

“We’ve proved that we are up there this year, but there are a lot of other teams doing that as well if you look around us.”

Friday’s clash against St Helens is the first of two games over the Bank Holiday weekend, with Matty Peet’s side travelling to Hull KR on Monday.

“Your body definitely feels it, but that’s why you’ve got a big squad,” Partington stated.

“We are confident in the people who can come in and do a job for us if needed.

“It’s a fixture so we’ve just got to get our job done and not focus on anything else.”