‘Win this one’ – Man Utd to Fergie

Warriors chief executive Cameron George has charged the club’s staff to get 20,000 spectators along to Saturday’s blockbuster against the Roosters.

The Warriors had an emphatic 26-4 win over Wests Tigers at Mt Smart Stadium last weekend, played in front of 16,727 fans.

Their round 10 game is against one of the NRL’s real glamour clubs and George hopes the Warriors’ red hot form will help bring out a huge crowd for the game.

‘‘Our crowds have been awesome so far, but I’ve challenged the staff this week not to sit on their hands and accept what we’ve got,’’ George said.

‘‘Let’s get better. The football side are doing their things and our game day experience has improved considerably over this year.

‘‘But we’ve got to try to fill the stadium as best we can, we’re hoping for over 20,000 to come to this game, because it really does help the team.

‘‘I’ve put it to the staff this morning to think outside the square and get bigger and better with our game day experience and draw more people here.’’

The game against the Roosters kicks of at the fan friendly time of 5pm. George feels this best suits their fanbase.

‘‘A lot of club sports are finished by then, it’s a great time for families to come to the football and we finish early enough that people can go on and do other things afterwards.

‘‘This week is the indigenous round, it marks a special occasion and it will be great for the boys to play in front of hopefully a sellout crowd.’’

At the end of last season, when the Warriors were in the midst of a nine-game losing streak, crowds at Mt Smart Stadium were only just over 9000 for two of their last three games.

It’s no coincidence that the better performances on the field this year, with seven wins from nine games, has translated to more people coming through the turnstiles, but George wants bigger crowds.

‘‘I want there to be 20,000 here every time we play,’’ he said.

‘‘We are averaging over 18,500 a game now, but I want to take us to another level.’’

Few would have predicted the Warriors to be in second place on the ladder after nine games of the season, but as their campaign has gone on, the team has shown its great start wasn’t a flash in the pan and it can keep this going for the rest of the season.

While this has surprised many, George says he’s not one of those people.

‘‘Quietly, I had a really positive feeling going into this, because I knew the players were hurting on the back of what had happened,’’ George said.

‘‘I knew our fans were hurting as well and our focus was to rebuild our culture, reset our minds to be positive going into 2018.

‘‘So when I saw the response to getting back to the basics, I could see the staff and players developing in a way that was good for us.

‘‘The quality of the playing roster, in terms of getting the right people here and leading us, that was always going to be taking us a long way this year.’’ A day after former manager Alex Ferguson underwent emergency surgery for a brain haemorrhage, Manchester United tweeted yesterday: ‘‘Please. Be strong. Win this one.’’

The online post, which provided no update on the 76-year-old Ferguson’s condition, came 21 hours after United announced that Ferguson required ‘‘a period of intensive care to optimise his recovery’’.

Social media continued to be awash with tributes and get-well messages for Ferguson, who spent almost 27 years in charge before retiring in 2013 as the most successful manager in British football history.

Among those sending their best wishes was Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola before he received the Premier League trophy that Ferguson had won 13 times.

‘‘A big hug and our thoughts are with his wife, Cathy, and the Manchester United family,’’ Guardiola said. ‘‘I was glad to have dinner with him two weeks ago, and hopefully he can recover as quickly as possible.’’