Brown still revered despite his problems at Saints – Crabtree

Brown proved crucial in turning around the culture and performances of the West Yorkshire club when he arrived at the end of 2008, leading them to a Challenge Cup final and regularly achieving a top-four spot in Super League.

Things turned sour last season, though, when Huddersfield’s form dipped alarmingly and the 39-year-old, who had already said he would be departing for Saints at the end of the campaign, was duly sacked in July. Neither has he had a comfortable start at Langtree Park where on the first day of the season Huddersfield, under his former assistant Paul Anderson, visited and delivered an emphatic 40-4 defeat which has possibly not been bettered in terms of impressiveness by any side this term.

Struggling Saints, admittedly dogged by injuries, have never really got going and he heads back to John Smith’s Stadium tonight with them uncharacteristically having fallen out of the top eight into ninth spot with their Challenge Cup hopes also ended.

Huddersfield, meanwhile, have flourished under Anderson and are hot on the heels of leaders Wigan Warriors in second place with a Challenge Cup quarter-final at Warrington to come next month.

However, experienced Giants prop Crabtree told the Yorkshire Post: “I’ve got a lot of time for Nathan.

“He’s up there with the best, if not the best coach I’ve ever had because he understood what I needed to do in my game to become a better player.

“Without him I wouldn’t be doing quite as well as I am now and, at the same time, I don’t think it would have been quite as smooth for Baloo (Anderson) taking over here.

“I’m confident Nathan will turn Saints around. I just hope they give him the opportunity to do so. They have been very unfortunate with injuries.

“You can never take St Helens lightly especially with James Roby coming back and they will be up for this.

“They owe us one after we turned them over at their place.

“That was our best performance of the season – the stats we saw proved that – and we’re enjoying our rugby and what we’re doing.

“There’s a great atmosphere at the club and it is just going really well.

“We’re looking to continue that Monday night.”

Huddersfield are, indeed, looking for a ninth win in 10 games tonight having flexed their muscles once more with a devastating 42-6 victory over Bradford Bulls at Magic Weekend.

But they are without Jason Chan, the Papuan second-row who is missing for three months after rupturing a bicep in Manchester.

However, Michael Lawrence makes a timely return to the squad as does centre Joe Wardle after a two-game ban.

That means Brett Ferres, who played centre last week, can switch back to the second-row while loose forward David Faiumu is also back in contention with Ben Blackmore dropping out of the 19-man squad.

Crabtree said: “We’re very fortunate this year as we have about 20 back-rows!

“I thought we had too many but it’s not the case.

“Channy is a massive loss as he’s a great player and has been on fire for us but on the flip side Ukuma Ta’ai has just been getting better and better in the last few weeks.

“He’s worked really hard to get fit and make sure he gets in this team.

“He’s taken his opportunity and now this could be time to cement his position and hopefully Channy will be back for the play-offs.”

Saints are delighted to see the return of talismanic England hooker Roby after two months on the sidelines while their long-running scrum-half issues could finally be ended given the loan signing of Warrington’s Gareth O’Brien who makes his debut.

Exiles winger Francis Meli is back from the dislocated elbow he suffered as a result of that ugly high tackle on Hull KR’s Craig Hall which also resulted in a red card and four-match ban.

With captain Paul Wellens fit again as well, Brown finally has a squad resembling something like normality.

Tonight’s televised game is also one last opportunity for so many players to impress England coach Steve McNamara who names his squad tomorrow for the Exiles game on Friday week.

Crabtree, 31, seems to be a certainty given his consistently high-octane performances in the Huddersfield front-row.

“If he doesn’t pick me I’d be very disappointed and I’d have to be have a word with him,” smiled a player who sat out the autumn internationals with Wales and France due to shoulder surgery.

Huddersfield’s home fixture with Catalan, originally scheduled for Sunday June 30, has been brought forward to Friday June 28 (8pm) for Sky television purposes.