SAINTS boss Nathan Brown looks ahead to Friday night’s play-off clash against Castleford in conversation with the Star’s Mike Critchley.

MC: Congratulations on the League Leaders’ Shield. Can you allow the team a pat on the back before the play-offs start?

NB: It is a reward for being the best side over 27 rounds and we have overcome some adversity to get there. If you speak to the teams that finished nearest to us they would all say that what St Helens have gone through we would deserve to be where we are.

MC: Last week was a defeat but it was a magnificent effort.

NB: We had a good control of the game until Alex went off. The dismissal was unfortunate, but the fans who were there must have been proud of the way our boys tried hard to win the game.

MC: The fans certainly picked up on that, and their backing was tremendous on Friday.

NB: Yes, I have learned that since I have been here that the St Helens community is hungry for success, they go down swinging and don’t like settling for defeat.

MC: It was a strange 24 hours — despondency after the defeat on Friday and then joy after Cas letting it slip.

NB: We know Catalan are a hard team to beat, but there have been so many twists and turns in the comp this year that any result was never going to surprise anybody. Catalan played well and were too good for Cas and that rightfully handed us our just reward.

MC: It ratchets up in intensity now with the play-offs.

NB: We have learned the last four of five weeks what works and what doesn’t. If we do the things that work, like we did at Leeds, Wakefield and Huddersfield, we give ourselves a chance. It is about understanding where we are as a team, understanding what the personnel are capable of and doing it to the best of our ability.

MC: Cas have had a draining few months. They may feel a little bit knocked about, but they will be coming to Langtree with plenty of motivation.

NB: They have a fully-fit squad and have played very good footy this year, making Wembley on their merit. Cas will probably start as favourites for this game but it is on our home field and we have generally been good at home and so should go out with plenty of confidence. It will be a tough game, we are the underdogs but we will give ourselves a shout.

MC: There will be an interesting duel between James Roby and Dream Team hooker Daryl Clark. Roby has had a fine year — do you think he is a victim of his own high standards?

NB: We saw at the weekend that Robes made 65 tackles and carried the ball for 200 metres. There is not a hooker in the competition who can do it like that at either end. Daryl Clark is a terrific young player and over time will keep getting better, but as it stands at the minute a Robes-Daz Clark combination would be a good one for England. But Robes has a lot of maturity about his game because he has played in so many big games.

The worst part of Robes’ game is that he is too unselfish. He needs to be more selfish because there are a lot of things he can do and we saw what he did for the team at the weekend.

That was as good a performance I have seen from a hooker for a long, long time.