THERE'S nothing Pride coach David Maiden enjoys more than watching his team ''play footy''.

Not just take part in a game of rugby league, but really open the throttle and show the full extent of their ability and flair.

But Maiden could not have been happier after watching the Pride survive a game that turned into a dour grind yesterday.

Regardless of how it was achieved, the Pride’s 28-12 win against Wynnum-Manly yesterday left Maiden thrilled, with the club just one win away from a second successive Queensland Cup grand final.

The Pride pushed to an 18-6 lead at halftime after scoring three converted tries to one but the second 40 was a much tighter affair and showed the Pride’s maturity as a team used to switching to finals mode.

"Sometimes as a coach you want to see them play football, but by the same token we were in a position where we just had to play pretty boring football in the second half and we got the points," Maiden said.

In finals football, it did not matter how you won.

"You just read your scorebook and the boys have put themselves in a position to go one further," he said.

"I don’t think we were as good in
attack this week as we were last week and I think we were down at times in defence.

"But when they needed to, they lifted another gear and they forced some errors with (Wynnum’s) defence and that was pleasing to see.

"It was tough conditions out there, very sweaty, very humid and very draining. I’m proud of them."

The Seagulls’ loss in the final fixture round last week handed the Pride a home final and they made the most of it in front of a boisterous crowd at Barlow Park. But the Seagulls were no pushovers and the Pride had to get into an arm wrestle to compete.

"That’s the nature of their side, they’ll just keep rolling at you no matter what you do and we just had to defend them," Maiden said.

The Pride have been guilty at times of taking their foot off the pedal and Maiden said that was discussed at the break.

"We were conscious of the fact that we have done that in the past," he said.

"So we knew we had to come out, we knew we were in an arm wrestle and we also knew that if we played ugly, or defensively, we were going to win the game. They did that, they toughed it out."

The win was the Pride’s 10th in succession and gives them the chance to play for a grand final spot to avenge last year’s loss in the decider.

"It was just a great team effort again, there weren’t any standouts, we just worked hard," Maiden said.

"That’s what’s got us across the line is working for each other and that’s what we’ve got to keep doing."

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