Halifax coach Anthony Farell has an interesting view on Castleford's weak-spot: "They come out with a pretty basic game-plan to just come at you and come at you and wait for you to mess up. As we weren't turning the ball over, they struggled to come up with a plan after that."

Indeed, Cas coach Dave Woods slamed his side's performance as '... very inept...' and accused his players of believing their own press and not being prepared to '... roll their sleeves up'.

Influential half back Paul Handforth is doubtful with a leg injury picked up at Halifax. In that game veteran Brad Davies switched to scrum half with former academy player Dominic Brambani filling in at stand-off.

Also on the treatment table is former Wakefield, Dewsbury and Hull KR prop Frank Watene - sidelined for three weeks with a calf injury picked up at Doncaster. Watene's spot will be filled by 21 year old former Siddal prop Byron Smith.

Most interesting confrontation of the afternoon involves ex-Hornets full back Michael Platt. Platty was one of the first players on-board last season when Bobbie was building his squad - and he covered himself with glory with some outstanding performances on his way to the Young Player of them Year award (most notably when he played at centre with a broken jaw in our win at Leigh).

Obviously we wish him all the best for the season - and a stinker on Sunday!

At Hornets, Bobbie Goulding's side has established a benchmark against which all forthcoming performances will be measured this season.

The quite astonishing display against Salford has raised expectation levels even higher and the Bobster sees it as a real launchpad for the NL1 campaign. “We’ve got to play like that week in, week out - and I think we’ve got the squad to do it," he said.

He went on: “We had Salford rocking... we played excellently and I think we made a few people sit up and take note. I am proud of every single one of my players. They all gave 100 per cent and we need to maintain that level of performance in the league."

And Goulding has a very pleasing selection headache ahead of Sunday's game. Lee Hansen and Rob Ball are in contention for places in the pack, with John Braddish and Sam Butterworth vying for half-back selection.

Whichever team he chooses, Hornets fans have seen the poterntial that exists in this side - and it's a very exciting proposition.

There's no doubt that Castleford believe that they have Super League credentials, but their defeat by Halifax and our performance last weekend suggests that we have an excellent opportunity to throw down a marker for the season.

From a supporters' view, Sunday provides yet another chance to assess our club's progress - whilst getting in a visit to a ground we don't do particularly often (from memory, the last visits were in the 1990-91 season when we won 19-12 in the John Player trophy and lost 40-nil in the league).

So let's get there and get behind Bobbie's lads. After last week, this one WILL be an absolute cracker. And you'd be mad to miss it.