Castleford Tigers v St Helens: A Cas win would get people talking about us says McShane

Saints have taken over as the competition’s most talked about team and McShane insisted Tigers want to put that right.

“We have gone a bit under the radar,” he said of the season so far. “No one’s really watching us because of the start we had, but we’ll just keep ticking away and trying to keep improving.

“In a month or so, or even in the next couple of weeks, we’re going to get some key players back and hopefully we can kick on to another level then.

“We’ll keep training hard because we want to be a top team and we want to be talked about. We’ve said that for the last couple of years, we want to be right up there competing.”

Saints are eight points ahead of fifth-placed Tigers, but have played two games more.

“They are flying at the minute,” observed McShane. “They are top of the league and they are who you aim for, but we are at home and hopefully we can fix up on the two results we’ve had against them already.”

Tigers were outplayed 46-6 at Saints in Super League round one and beaten 36-18 in a Ladbrokes Challenge Cup tie at the Jungle 12 days ago.

“There were a few little blips in certain areas where we could have done better,” admitted McShane. “I thought we fixed up a few of those [last Saturday] and hopefully we can keep building and put in a good performance.”

The 38-10 Magic Weekend thrashing of Leeds Rhinos will send Tigers into tonight’s game in confident mood.

McShane added: “I think we showed a bit of character.

“We’ve got a really tough block of games coming up and we’ve been searching for a performance like that.

“To deliver it was good. Our first couple of good ball sets were a bit rusty, but then young Truey [Jake Trueman] took control of the game.

“He was outstanding and he set us a platform with his confidence in the first half.

“He got us on the front foot. It was a massive step forward for us and the challenge now is being consistent and repeating it.”

Trueman’s inclusion in the halves allowed McShane to move back to his specialist role of hooker.

He stressed: “I don’t mind playing at half. Whatever’s best for the team, but you always want to play your favourite position and I enjoyed it.”

Full-back/stand-off Ben Roberts could return from injury for Tigers tonight and prop James Green has also been drafted into the 19-man squad.

Matt Cook and Kieran Gill, who were not selected last weekend, are included, with Joe Wardle and Jake Webster dropping out from the team which beat Leeds.

Prop Kyle Amor is back in contention for Saints after a one-match ban and Adam Swift and Matty Smith have also been named in the initial squad.

Matty Lees, a substitute in the 38-18 defeat of Widnes Vikings in Newcastle last Saturday, is omitted.

Castleford Tigers: from Cook, Ellis, Foster, Green, Gill, Hitchcox, Holmes, Massey, McMeeken, McShane, Millington, Milner, Minikin, Moors, Roberts, Sene-Lefao, Shenton, Trueman, Watts.

St Helens: from Lomax, Makinson, Morgan, Percival, Swift, Fages, Smith, Roby, Amor, Taia, Wilkin, McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Douglas, Knowles, Thompson, Peyroux, Richardson, Grace, Barba.

Referee: Chris Kendall (Huddersfield).

Kick-off: Tonight, 7.45pm.