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Time's starting to run out for us: Matterson
IT'S getting towards now or never in Castleford Tigers' bid to secure an engage Super League play-off spot.
Boss Terry Matterson admitted tomorrow's trip to Bradford Bulls is the middle of a three-match series of "four-pointers".
A Cas win would boost their own top-eight aspirations – and be a massive setback to Bulls' hopes.
Matterson said: "It was the same last week against Catalans and it will be the same again next week, when we play Hull. We've got to play nearly all the teams around us and they are big games.
"There are nine games to go, we keep talking about winning games and in three weeks' time we can't be in the same position, because it will be too late. It is a big game and we are ready for it."
Tigers are bidding to complete their first double of the year, after staging a stirring comeback to beat Bulls 28-26 at the Jungle in March.
"We were lucky," Matterson admitted. "It was good to get that one, but they were the better side."
Cutting out the unforced errors will be Tigers' priority tomorrow, following last Saturday's controversial 22-20 home loss to Les Catalans Dragons.
"Our ball control was really poor," said Matterson. "We came up with some fundamental errors.
"There was no sense that was going to happen. We were good in the first 10 minutes and our execution was great.
"Our kicking game was really good, but our one-on-one basic skill let us down. There were about eight poor passes and simple dropped balls.
"We gave them too much opportunity to attack our line and that's the big area we need to improve on – our completion."
Tigers could be boosted by the return of skipper Ryan Hudson from a broken arm suffered on Easter Monday.
He has trained all week and was named in their initial 19-man squad, though Matterson said a final decision will be made tomorrow.
"If he doesn't play this week, he'll definitely be right for the game after," Matterson said. "He is pretty keen to play, but we have got to make sure he is okay."
Third-bottom Bulls are three points behind Cas, but have played one game fewer, and Bradford coach Steve McNamara is making no effort to disguise the importance of tomorrow's showdown.
"We need to start picking some points up," he said. "We have got a game in hand on most sides, but we need to put a run together.
"Our last four performances have been encouraging – all be it we've won two and lost two – and we are heading in the right direction. But we have got to really get our cutting edge back and go on a big run."
Bulls gave Leeds a shock last week before going down 33-20, but McNamara insisted: "We need to improve in a lot of areas, especially our concentration levels. And as good as it was to come back from 16-2 down, we don't want to be doing that every week."
Of Tigers, McNamara said: "They are a good side. They have a great mix of some young, exciting players and some experienced overseas players. There's a good balance there."
Bradford (from): Sykes, Langley, Sheriffe, Burgess, Donaldson, Scruton, Menzies, Newton, Godwin, Cook, Halley, Nero, Lynch, Kopczak, Jeffries, Tadulala, Worrincy, Platt, Deacon.
Castleford (from): Owen, Shenton, Wainwright, Chase, Sargent, Hudson, Huby, Ferres, Clayton, Westerman, Jones, Higgins, Feather, Boyle, Netherton, Faumuina, McGoldrick, Widders, Thompson.
Referee: Ben Thaler (Wakefield).
Kick-off: Tomorrow, 3pm.
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Sunday 12 February 2012
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