Shenton’s leadership should lift rest of Tigers, says Dixon

Ex-England centre Shenton left Castleford for the five-time Super League winners at the end of 2010, but rejoined his hometown club ahead of the current campaign.

He makes his first return to Saints since then this afternoon captaining a side who are desperately seeking their first win in eight games.

“I played with Shenny before and now and he’s definitely come back a better player plus a good leader too,” said Tigers winger Dixon.

“There’s a lot of professionalism at Saints and he’s tried to implement a few ideas from there over here.

“He’s played in a Grand Final for them, too, but is now very proud to captain his hometown club and that’s well deserved.

“He’s come back a real leader and it’s great to have him back here.

“I know he’ll be looking for a big game in his first match back at Saints, but he’s been putting his hand up week-in, week out and it’s up to the rest of us now to follow him.”

Castleford’s latest reverse was Good Friday’s 37-16 home loss to Wakefield Trinity Wildcats when they were already shabbily 25-0 down at half-time.

Goalkicker Dixon, who missed that game through illness but returns today, said: “We had a good chat on Saturday about what happened against Wakefield because we were very disappointed with that result, especially with it being a derby, too.

“It wasn’t good enough and everyone realises that.

“It’s hard to put a finger on what exactly has gone wrong – if we could it would be easy to rectify – but I do think we just need to stick to our game plan more.

“We might get a try scored against us and the heads go down. We need to be more confident as we have some great ability and strike in this squad. It is a very light squad, but we have real quality in it.”

History, however, does not suggest Castleford, who have fallen to bottom spot after Salford’s surprise win over leaders Huddersfield Giants, will emerge from their worrying slump in this particular fixture.

The West Yorkshire club have not won at Saints for more than 20 years, their last victory being a Regal Trophy third-round victory in December 1992, while the club have to go back a further two years for their previous league success there.

Dixon, now in his sixth season at Wheldon Road, said: “Saints lost against Wigan on Good Friday, but are always a dangerous side while Nathan Brown is a fantastic coach who’s got them playing in his style now.

“We know we’ve not won there for a very long time, but records are there to be broken and we’re hoping we’ll come away from Monday not only with a good performance but two points.”

The RFL have confirmed that Friday’s result against Wakefield will stand. The game was abandoned after 73 minutes when supporters were ordered to evacuate one of the stands at Castleford due to safety concerns over a suspected fire in one of the floodlights.

“No one had any complaints with Wakefield getting the points,” said Dixon. “Wakefield were worthy winners.”