Wakefield Trinity belief growing after history-making win over Leigh Leopards, says Daryl Powell
Daryl Powell can sense belief building at Wakefield Trinity after his side moved to within 80 minutes of a maiden Super League Grand Final.
Trinity secured their highest-ever finish of fourth at the end of the regular season but questions remained about their ability to win when it mattered.
Wakefield delivered an emphatic answer to beat Leigh Leopards 26-16 in Friday's eliminator and book their place in a first-ever semi-final.
"You get a bit more belief every game you come through like that," said Powell.
"It's big for us to get to that next stage. Now the next challenge is to get to a Grand Final and then can we win a Grand Final?
"We're two games away from doing something special. I think the players believe that they're capable of doing it.
"You've got to come up with an unbelievable performance because you're coming up against the best teams all year. It's difficult but doable.
"You've got to be excited. If you're not, you're checking pulses."
Wakefield scored two first-half tries through Tyson Smoothy and Tom Johnstone, only to concede on the stroke of half-time.
Isaiah Vagana and Caius Faatili crossed after the interval to calm any nerves but Trinity had to dig deep in the closing stages following Emre Guler's red card.
Wakefield saw out a famous win despite conceding two late tries.
"I thought first half we were outstanding," said Powell.
"We dominated the game like we did last week but the scoreline didn’t really show it with them scoring before half-time.
"The start of the second half, I thought we blew them away. Emre getting sent off changed the game but we did some smart things to shut the game down.
"It ended up being pretty helter-skelter in the last 30 minutes but I thought we were awesome really for large parts of the game. We saw it out when we needed to."
Wakefield must now await the outcome of Saturday's eliminator to discover their opponents.
A Warrington Wolves win would send them to Wigan Warriors, while a Hull KR victory would mean a trip to Leeds Rhinos.
"We don't know where we have to go yet but we'll prepare for what comes next week," added Powell.
"I feel we're in such a great place. The whole team is in a good place mentally. We’ll see what happens tomorrow night and go from there.
"We're capable of beating anybody. We've just got to be right on top of our game."