The New Zealand Warriors are looking to pull up the drawbridge when National Rugby League opponents the Sydney Roosters come visiting on Sunday.
The Warriors turned Mt Smart Stadium into a fortress during the second half of last year when they produced a sustained run from near the foot of
the table to finish one match short of the grand final.
They continued to turn their own turf into an advantage at the start of the new season, repelling Parramatta in round one to make it seven wins in a row in Auckland since last July.
But their fortunes at home have taken a tumble since then, with losses to Brisbane and South Sydney, and coach Ivan Cleary doesn't want the Roosters to complete a hat-trick.
"We don't want to go through another, that's for sure," he said.
"It makes life tough if you can't win at home, so we are looking to turn that around this week."
The Warriors - who are sitting in ninth spot, one ahead of the Roosters - are boosted by the return from injury of two of their big names: skipper Steve Price and winger Manu Vatuvei.
Price has missed the past two rounds with a throat problem, while Vatuvei has sat out the past three with knee ligament trouble.
"You definitely miss your key guys, there's no doubt about it, especially when Pricey is our captain and leader, and a lot of good things happen around Manu," Cleary said.
"But in saying that, we have a squad that is well and truly capable of doing a job. We just haven't quite got it done."
The Warriors are looking to snap another disappointing streak, having lost their past three matches, the last at Newcastle last Sunday.
With the club having been tipped as title contenders at the start of the campaign, Cleary hoped they still carried that aura.
He said the premiership was a long hard road and he pointed to assistant coach John Ackland's words of a few days ago that "you have to be on your game every week to win half your games".
"We still feel like we're a good team and not too far away from things," Cleary said.
"The ball is not quite bouncing our way at the moment, but it just means we have to work a bit harder. We're still pretty confident in how the season is going to pan out."
The Warriors will also want to get back to winning ways to maintain the big support they have attracted so far this year.
Their three home matches have produced an average gate of more than 21,000, a huge jump on their regular season average last year of just 11,444, the second lowest in the league.
The Roosters have the same two-win three-loss record as the Warriors and are also backing up after a last-up defeat, to Brisbane.
They welcome back Kiwi Sia Soliola from an eye socket injury, with the centre/lock listed to start on the bench.
Soliola is one of five New Zealanders in the Roosters' squad, along with fellow test representatives Sam Perrett, Setaimata Sa and Shaun Kenny-Dowall, and Auckland-born prop Frank-Paul Nuuausala.
The visitors' key to success could be their New South Wales Origin halves, Mitchell Pearce and five-eighth and skipper Braith Anasta.
The sides met twice last year, both at Mt Smart Stadium, with the Roosters winning 38-12 in late May, while the Warriors prevailed 30-13 in the second week of the playoffs.
- NZPA
WHAT: Warriors v Roosters
WHERE: Mt Smart Stadium
WHEN: 2pm, Sunday
