HE insists he holds no grudges but the poignancy of a Wakefield Trinity victory will not be lost on Danny Brough when he lines up against his old club, Hull in Sunday's Carnegie Challenge Cup semi-final.

Two years after being told he was surplus to requirements at the KC Stadium, a player who kicked the winning drop-goal in the 2005 Challenge Cup final victory over Leeds is looking forward to showing Hull the folly of that lack of faith in him.

Since joining Wakefield from Castleford at the end of last season, Brough has not quite managed to scale the heights he enjoyed with Hull but the semi-final at Doncaster presents the scrum-half with the perfect opportunity to make his point.

After his heroics at the Millennium Stadium, Brough looked set to become an integral part of Hull's quest for further success only for his life to unravel in dramatic manner in the opening months of the 2006 season.

The dismissal of John Kear, now his coach at Belle Vue, saw the arrival of Australian Peter Sharp who decided that as Paul Cooke and Richard Horne were his preferred choice at half-back and with Richard Swain unmovable at hooker, Brough had to go.

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"Richard Agar put me on the bench for four games after John got the sack and then Peter Sharp came in," recalled Brough. "He said to me 'I know your girlfriend is due in a couple of weeks and that you have just bought a house in Hull but you don't figure in my future plans.

"Naturally I was devastated. Then he said 'Castleford have come in for you, do you want to go?'

"I argued with him and said I wanted to stay and fight for my spot but (Hull chairwoman) Kath Hetherington said she'd leave me to rot in the under-21s if I didn't go so that was that. Off to Cas I went."

Although he made a big difference at Castleford, Brough could not prevent the Tigers from being relegated at the end of 2006 but did lead them straight back into Super League in 2007 before agreeing terms with Wakefield, where his professional career had begun as a 16-year-old.

The irony for Hull is that within a year of releasing Brough they lost Swain to retirement and Cooke to Hull Kingston Rovers while Horne has missed most of this season through injury, leaving them short of players with the qualities the Wakefield half-back has in abundance.

Brough has shown flashes of his precocious best this season, most memorably in an 18-16 victory over Huddersfield in April when, after earlier missing three kicks at goal, he landed the winning penalty from 45 metres out to decide a close match.

That iron-will prompted Kear to laud Brough ahead of a fourth round Cup tie against Salford, saying: "The bigger the stage, the better Danny plays.

"I'm looking to get to the Challenge Cup final with him again so he can get the Lance Todd Trophy which he deserved to get last time."

Cup wins against Salford, Barrow and Oldham have put Brough within 80 minutes of staking a claim for the sport's most prestigious man-of-the-match award and left Wakefield facing their biggest match since the 2006 relegation decider against Castleford, whose line-up included Brough.

"It's 29 years since Wakefield reached the Challenge Cup final and though I knew I was going to play in big games when I signed, I didn't expect to play in a semi-final in my first year back," said Brough, who feels Trinity's billing as underdogs is meaningless this weekend.

"Hull are in great form, we haven't beat them this year and it's going to take something out of the ordinary for us to do it. We may be underdogs but if we stick together as the tight group that we are we can beat them.

"We haven't been in the best form recently and we haven't been doing the little things right and some people have been worrying about getting injured and missing the semi.

"There are no excuses on Sunday and if everybody who's picked is fit there should be no dramas. John (Kear) has had success in the past by getting teams up for one-off games like Challenge Cup finals and that relegation decider so I'm sure you'll see a different Wakefield on Sunday to the one you've seen in the last few weeks."

Brough's involvement has been in some doubt because of a torn calf muscle and twisted ankle but after sitting out last week's defeat at Bradford and undergoing a tough rehabilitation process, the 25-year-old is confident he will last the pace on Sunday.

"I have done a lot of fitness training on my own and exceeded my expectations as to how fit and fresh I thought I'd be a month ago," said Brough, who will sport one of his signature hairstyles in the semi-final.

"I went over to Hull earlier this week to have my hair whitened by my girlfriend's mate. She's coming over on Saturday to put some red and blue into it. All will be revealed on Sunday."

A capacity crowd at the Keepmoat Stadium will feature a strong contingent from Brough's closely-knit family and a player who wears his heart on his sleeve is hoping their presence will bring out the best in him.

"Eleven of them are going to the semi-final. I had to buy them all a ticket earlier this week and it very nearly broke my heart," quipped Brough, who could what have it takes to break Hull's hearts on Sunday afternoon.