Castleford forward Adam Milner has insisted that the Tigers’ confidence has not wavered despite their wobble against St Helens last weekend ahead of tonight’s trip to Salford.
Some had begun to suggest that defeat in the opening game of the Super 8s was more than just a blip and, despite the Tigers comfortably clear at the top of Super League, their bubble had perhaps burst.
But Milner insists that is not the case and in his eyes, their mission to reach a maiden Grand Final appearance at Old Trafford has not changed.
He said: “The media will be saying that they’re going to write us off and the bubble has burst but we’re still a confident camp here.
“There’s extra work going into putting things right. Nothing has changed; if we win all our home games it puts us in a Grand Final and making sure we’ve won the league in the process. Anything can happen after that.
“We pride ourselves on our home form, but full credit to St Helens. They managed to keep us out; their scramble defence was something special but we’ll learn from that and we’ll look to come away from Salford with the two points to bounce back.”
Salford beat the Tigers at the AJ Bell Stadium earlier in the year ahead of the clash between the two sides tonight – and Milner insists Castleford will have to learn lessons from that day if they are to be triumphant tonight.
“We played them in awful conditions earlier in the year and it was a tight game; we’ll have to be a bit more patient than we were that day and look after the ball more to come away with the win,” he said. “I’m not a weatherman but if the conditions are bad, we’ll have to make sure we respect the ball.
“The nature of the competition now is that you’re playing the best seven teams alongside yourselves. You can’t turn up off your game or you’ll get turned over. We’ll be motivated having lost last time but there’s motivation from them pipping us over there earlier in the season.”
And Milner admits that as Castleford close in on a first-ever League Leader’s Shield, he would be honoured to be part of history.
He said: “It would be absolutely massive to win the league. We’d be the first Castleford team to have done that and from when I debuted here in 2010 when there were some real tough times, it’s an incredible transformation to be so close to winning some silverware. We owe the fans for sticking by us and it would be a brilliant thing to do to finish top and win that league. Finishing top would be massive given how we’d be the first team in this club’s history to do it – we’d become part of history.”
