Preview: Castleford v Harlequins (R26)

Former London Broncos skipper Terry Matterson is not expecting any favours from his old club when Harlequins RL take on his relegation-haunted Castleford Tigers side at the Jungle.

Matterson was a popular player with the Londoners at the advent of Super League in 1996 but knows there will be no place for sentiment as he battles to keep the Tigers in the top flight.

"I don?t expect any favours," he said. "We need to earn our points and earn our win. We?ve certainly got to turn the corner big time from our form over the last month."

A hat-trick of home wins over Huddersfield Giants, Warrington Wolves and Leeds Rhinos lifted Castleford to the brink of the top six but four successive defeats, including a club record 72-4 hammering by St Helens, have brought them back back into the mire.

Saturday's final home game is followed by trips to Salford City Reds and Wakefield Trinity Wildcats and Matterson is comforted by the knowledge that his team have control over their own destiny.

"It?s in our hands, that?s the main thing," he said. "We?ve got three games to go and, if we do our job, we?re going to be okay. There?s still an opportunity to jump a few spaces higher."

In addition to claiming some notable scalps at the Jungle, Matterson is also able to draw encouragement from the Tigers? 34-20 win over Harlequins at the Stoop in March, although they went down 24-16 on a return visit four months later.

"We won down there after being down 14-0," he recalled. "It was one of our better performances.

"It?s not as if we?re trying to find something that we haven?t got. We?ve shown in the middle part of the season that we can play some good footie and mix it with the best teams."

Emotions could be running high at Saturday's match, which will mark the final home appearance of popular skipper Danny Nutley and the much-travelled Deon Bird, who are both returning to Australia at the end of the season, and Matterson is expecting the vocal Tigers fans to play a key role.

"When the crowd get involved, they do make a difference," he said. "In three or four games we haven?t given them an opportunity to get involved.

"I think they?re realistic, they know where we?ve come from and how big a job it was. They?re very critical at times and rightfully so.

"I?ve struggled probably more than anyone at times but it?s how you bounce back and we?ve got an opportunity to bounce back.

"I didn?t think we were as bad in the last match at Bradford as the scoreline suggested. It was a much-improved performance and we got some positives out of that game."

Castleford welcome back prop Danny Sculthorpe, Australian three-quarter Luke Dyer and back rower Richard Fletcher from injury, with youngsters Jason Payne and Michael Knowles dropping out.

Harlequins are boosted by the return of skipper Mark McLinden, who has missed their last two matches with a back injury, but Luke Dorn continues at scrum-half in the absence of Thomas Leuluai. Centre Zeb Luisi and former Castleford winger Jon Wells are also back in the squad.

Castleford Tigers 18-man squad: Platt, Shenton, Dyer, Sculthorpe, Henderson, Nutley, Bird, Huby, R. Fletcher, Viane, Fa'aoso, Manu, McGoldrick, Ward, Davis, Lupton, A. Fletcher, Brough.

Harlequins RL 18-man squad: Bradley-Qalilawa, Budworth, Dorn, Gafa, Haumono, Heckenberg, Hopkins, Lucky Luisi, McLinden, Mills, Noone, Paul, Purdham, Randall, Smith, Stewart, Sykes, Williams.

Referee: P Bentham

Source: superleague.co.uk