Liam Watts admits his move to Castleford has ‘opened his eyes’ again following the disappointment of his departure from Hull FC.
Watts left Hull under a cloud in March, denying he had off-field issues which reportedly led to his departure from the Black and Whites.
However, he admits he is now in a much better place with his hometown club and is keen to repay the Tigers for handing him a chance to start afresh by winning silverware.
“It’s definitely opened my eyes again and shown me it’s not all doom and gloom,” Watts told League Express.
“The exit from Hull was what it was, but I’ll be forever grateful to Castleford for this chance and the lifeline they’ve given me.
“Hopefully we can get some trophies won sooner rather than later and defeats like Friday will be long forgotten. It’s time to start putting a good marker down here.
“It’s hard to believe it’s been five months already but as strange as it sounds, I’m still getting to know the players.
“You can see that out there; there’s some timing issues but I’m just trying to play my game and run around like a madhouse! It took two or three years to get to grips with it at Hull before people know how I play, and it won’t be an overnight thing here. We’ve got another seven or eight games left this year hopefully but it’s still early days for me here. I can only see it getting better.”
Castleford fought back from a disappointing first-half performance at Wigan last Friday, when they trailed 20-0 at the break before eventually narrowly losing 24-22.
It leaves them three points behind the pace in the race for a home semi-final, but Watts insisted all is not lost yet.
He said: “It’s only a three-point gap but we do know we need to win against Warrington on Friday night.
“We’ll dust ourselves down and pick ourselves up because we know it’s a big game – as they all are. There’s some breathing space between ourselves and fifth but we need to make sure we’re picking up results because this is anyone’s this year, this.”
Watts played the full 80 minutes during the defeat, and he joked: “I’ve done the odd 70 minute-effort here and there but I was blowing at the end! I was asked to get the team to half-time but as that second half wore on I began to realise I wasn’t coming off!”