The RFL

Castleford Tigers coach Terry Matterson has signed a new two-year contract which will keep him at the club until the end of the 2011 campaign.

Matterson, 42, is currently in his fourth season at the Jungle, having joined the club from Canberra Raiders in November 2005.

The former London Broncos captain, whose current deal was due to expire at the end of the season, has signed his extension during a five-match losing run, but is adamant the club’s long-term future is bright.

“I am really pleased,” he said. “We’ve come a long way this year, even though we’re in a bit of a hole at the moment.

“I just want to continue the work that we’ve done. There are a lot of good things happening here.

“The kids are coming through, which is an area that I have worked very hard at, and it is especially pleasing to see their development.

“We had two of our guys in the England squad last week and potential recruits can see that they can come to Cas and play representative football.

“My aims are to take the club into a position where we are consistently in the top eight and from there we can look to make a challenge in the play-offs.”

The Tigers were relegated in Matterson’s first season, but he guided them straight back.

Although they collected the wooden spoon in 2008, they won five of their opening seven matches this year to briefly climb into third place in engage Super League.

However, they have lost their last four league games to slump to 10th and will be hoping to stop the rot on Friday night against Huddersfield Giants at the Galpharm Stadium, where they suffered a dramatic 16-14 Carnegie Challenge Cup defeat three weeks ago.

Castleford chief executive Richard Wright said: “We are pleased that Terry has now signed this new contract and we can focus on the top eight and recruitment for next year.”

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