Castleford Tigers v St Helens: Saints recent success at Tigers will count for nothing says Percival

Tigers were beaten 26-22 at Saints in April and 26-12 by the same opposition last month, but have defeated them twice – 53-10 and 16-12 – at the Jungle in between.

Saints’ Betfred Super-8s victory in the most recent meeting gives them hope for tonight’s semi-final, despite finishing 17 points behind Tigers on the table.

“We’ve been there and done it before so it gives you that slight confidence,” Percival said. “But it’s a different night, different game, different occasion.

“We’ve got to go there and do it again. All that’s in the past now so we’ve got to go there and refocus, know what we have got to do and get the job done.”

Saints have improved since Justin Holbrook took over as coach in May, though they did not seal their top-four place until last weekend.

Percival reflected: “I think since Justin’s come in we have been in pretty good form.

“The games we’ve lost we’ve only lost by small margins and we all know what we need to do individually. If we keep our momentum going and we all do our own job right, that’s all we can do on Thursday night.

“Games like that can be over in 40 minutes, or they can go right to the wire.

“I feel like we need to be on our game for the full 80 minutes, be clinical with our chances and defend well.”