Guest Column - Paul Cooke: I'm hoping my luck will hold out again on return to the KC

BEING out of Hull has been quite a blessing for me. I know a lot of players don't do it or want to do it but I'm enjoying being out of the city.

I'm travelling to Wakefield and back with Paul King every day and that hasn't been too bad, while playing for a club outside of Hull is certainly different but refreshing.

We're both going back to the KC tonight. I think I've just been lucky with my record there but, hopefully, that will continue again.

I know Kingy is really looking forward to his first return to Hull.

Being told you are surplus to requirements is something any player can take quite personally and he will be wanting to prove a point.

With him, and me, there's a couple of old boys going back and looking to do the job.

Kingy was ill quite early after joining Wakefield and didn't get much of a chance at the start of the season but he has been one of our better players over the last three weeks and is looking for that form to continue with a big performance against FC tonight.

As a club at Wildcats, we've not played too well over the last few weeks, although we did all right in London last Saturday only to see Harlequins go and probably play the best they had done all year to knock us out of the Challenge Cup.

We took a lot of positives out of that performance, though, and realise if we play anything like that we can overturn Hull.

We're similar to how they have started, going reasonably well early on but being off the boil recently. Injuries have certainly been a factor for us and they have been disruptive.

Even though we're in eighth and they are sixth, we're on the same number of points as Hull and each knows what a win could do to them before heading up to Edinburgh next weekend.

It will be a tough game for both given we've each been knocked out of the cup and we want to rectify a few things.

We're going to have to play well to get over the top of Hull who, even though they have their own injuries, have got some quality in there.

I don't know too much about the two kids who have been named – Danny Nicklas and Liam Cunningham – but I spoke to Kingy about them as, with him being there last year, he knows quite a bit about the Hull youngsters.

Everyone has got to start somewhere and playing in front of the Sky cameras on a Friday night doesn't get much bigger for a debut.

If they play, they will be looking forward to it and, I have to admit, it did have me thinking about my debut with FC all those years back.

Interview by Dave Craven