Castleford Tigers v Catalans Dragons: Repentant Westerman in vow to repay the Tigers

After helping them to their first win in five attempts against Salford last Sunday, the skilful loose-forward is looking to quickly gain some momentum with victory over bottom-placed Catalans Dragons at Magic Weekend tomorrow.

But Westerman was in the firing line just three weeks ago when coach Terry Matterson was forced to drop him and team-mate Rangi Chase for their match at Huddersfield Giants after allegations of late-night drinking.

Matterson was already under intense pressure without seven injured players and – after Tigers lost 24-0 – Huddersfield coach Nathan Brown launched a scathing attack on the duo.

"Joe's a kid with all that talent but you only see it once every six weeks," he said.

"It bothers you when coaches get under pressure because blokes with talent don't do the right thing by their club.

"If some of those blokes pull their heads out of the clouds and have a go every week, they will be good players and their clubs will do well."

Gifted Westerman was Super League's Young Player of the Year in 2008 but has struggled to consistently deliver performances since.

He admits the comments from Brown took him by surprise but it has also helped him reassess things.

"It was nothing to do with him but it was fair to say," said the 20-year-old of Brown.

"It's the one good thing to come out of it all – I do want to prove a point now.

"There's not much you can say. You've got to take it on the chin and I just have to go out there and play.

"It was all right against Salford but I've still some improvements to do and I'm still working on things. I just need to get involved more and, hopefully, it will all come together."

Repentant Westerman – who was also handed a hefty fine – concedes the damning episode left him in a mess.

"It had a massive affect on me," he said. "It was awful, especially watching the team get beaten on TV when you know you should be playing.

"Me and Rangi watched it together and knew we could have helped but it's over and done now.

"We paid the price for what we did. I'd just finished with my girlfriend – which isn't an excuse – and was seen somewhere. I shouldn't have been there at the end of the day but now I want to move on."

Westerman returned for the Challenge Cup game against Barrow when troubled Castleford suffered a shock defeat, causing fans to turn on Matterson and the club's board for the second successive home match.

However, tempers have eased following the much-needed win over Salford which edged them up to 10th.

"We had a good build-up," said Westerman, who kicked seven goals from seven attempts as the West Yorkshire club secured a 30-12 victory.

"We had a big talk and spoke about how we'd been losing. You don't want to be in that situation – nobody does – and we all sat down and said it's time to pull ourselves out of this.

"We knew it was only us who could do it. We trained hard and it showed. We ran away with it in the end which we didn't do the previous week against Barrow,

"I personally think it will turn us around now."

He says the Tigers, who had previously won just three Super League games, including a narrow triumph over tomorrow's opponents in Perpignan, are eyeing a push for the play-offs.

"The season starts from now," said the Castleford-born forward.

"Looking at the next few fixtures especially we know we can get on a run.

"We'll be looking to get two points against Catalans this weekend and the week after against Harlequins. Games are there to be won.

"If we play like we did against Salford, especially how we defended, we will start picking more up.

"Everybody seems fine now and we know ourselves we'll be up there."

Westerman believes success over Kevin Walters's struggling French side in the first game at Murrayfield tomorrow (2pm) is crucial in their recovery and to avoid further unrest among their passionate support.

"Hopefully, there'll be no more protests happening," he said.

"The fans were really, really good against Salford and now this should be the start of big things."