TOM Lineham hopes the Easter period will herald the further development of his left-edge partnership with Ryan Atkins.

After spending most of his debut season at The Wire on the right wing, Lineham has switched to the left in 2017 and his link-up with Atkins has shown positive signs.

The centre scored two first-half tries in Friday’s 25-14 win over Leeds, the first of which was set up by Lineham knocking back a cross-field kick, while the winger crossed for his sixth try of the campaign after the break.

Former Hull man Lineham went into detail about how a winger-centre partnership has to work.

“The combination with Ryan is really good, we’ve got it working pretty well at the moment,” he said.

“He’s brilliant in defence and has got good hands, I’m sure he’ll put me away for a few more tries yet.

“With the kick plays, it worked last week but we need to make sure we’re talking all the time.

“It’s all about movement as well. If I’m competing for the ball, he’s got to look at whether he can stop them breaking if I don’t win the challenge.

“From my view, if I can’t catch the ball cleanly I’ve got to be looking to knock it back for him.

“He’s very experienced so he’ll talk to me as much as he can. We both need to know each other’s role as much as our own and it’s developing well.”

Lineham marked his return to the side with a try in Friday’s victory after sitting out the previous two games through suspension, which came about after his sin-binning at Leigh on March 16.

That meant he missed a 31-6 defeat to St Helens and the 22-22 draw with former club Hull FC.

The 24-year-old from Leeds says watching the team continue to struggle was tough and he admitted he would rather stay off the scoresheet if it meant the team won.

“It was the first time I’d been suspended in my career. It wasn’t ideal and I felt a bit hard done by,” he said.

“Watching from the sidelines was pretty painful, especially the Saints defeat. It was disappointing not to play against my former club as well.

“To come back in against a Leeds side that have been through adversity themselves but have bounced back was special.

“In terms of try-scoring it’s been great for me, it’s always nice to get over the line.

“It’s all about the team though, there’s no use getting over the line if the team aren’t winning.”

Barring injury, Lineham is expected to feature in both games over the Easter double header as they travel to Widnes tonight, Thursday, before welcoming Huddersfield to The Halliwell Jones Stadium on Monday.

The winger says the team is full of confidence after their first league win of the season.

“There’s been a lot of external pressure but we’ve kept very tight as a group. We all share the same ambition and the intensity in training has been brilliant,” he said.

“We haven’t played well but we haven’t had much luck. Against Salford, we dropped the ball over the line three times.

“Sometimes the bounce of the ball just doesn’t go your way.

“In the Leeds game, it seemed to turn for us but now our focus is on climbing the table.

“The confidence we will take from that game will be massive, especially the manner of it.

“We need to kick on now with two big wins over Easter.”