Tigers 'optimistic' over Matterson

Castleford are confident they can persuade coach Terry Matterson to stay with the club and have also not given up hope of keeping their place in Super League for 2007.

Matterson hinted strongly that he would quit the club in the immediate aftermath of the Tigers' heartbreaking 29-17 defeat in their relegation decider with Wakefield on Saturday night. Chief Executive Richard Wright also revealed that the club will push for Super League to be expanded to 13 clubs in time for next season which would mean a reprieve for the Tigers.

Wright said he was "optimistic" that the Australian would decide to see out his two-year contract and added: "We have made representations to the RFL and we will speak to the clubs to see if it's a possibility (expansion)."

"It would mean watering down the funding which is always a consideration but we genuinely believe we're an asset to the competition," added Wright.

"Rules are rules but there is an element of injustice here. The Catalans did finish bottom and we achieved 19 points so we feel we did enough to stay up."

The League have plans to move to a franchise system and a 14-team competition by 2009, effectively removing automatic promotion and relegation.

Castleford will also be handed a back-door reprieve if Whitehaven or Batley win next month's National League One Grand Final.

Only Hull KR and Widnes, who meet on Sunday in the qualifying semi-final, are eligible for promotion, leaving Whitehaven and Batley, who face each other in a sudden-death semi-final on Sunday, to play for a £100,000 consolation prize.