The Tigers missed a big opportunity to move within two points of fifth place in the Super League when they blew an early 10-0 lead to lose 22-20, but there was definite promise in some of the play produced by the Castleford players, notably from youngsters Richard Owen, who scored two tries and came within a whisker of a third, and Joe Westerman, who became the stand-in kicker and slotted three from three, the last of them a pressure conversion from the touchline.

"I was really pleased with Richard Owen," said Matterson.

"He had to play a few positions. I don't think it helped that when Kirk Dixon got injured we had to shuffle things around, move Ryan McGoldrick to full-back and Richie to the wing. That wasn't ideal, but Richie's doing some really good stuff for us at the moment.

"I was also pleased with Joe Westerman. His form was poor and then he went with England to France. He didn't play, but he had a rest and that worked out really well for him. He's come back with two really strong performances.

"We know he can kick goals and it's good to have a back-up.

"Rangi Chase's still showing some good things with the ball as well and I felt the front row men did a pretty good job for us.

"But I was a little bit disappointed with our intensity in defence. I thought that was the area that let us down, with some ball control as well.

"We did play some nice rugby at times but we didn't apply enough pressure to the opposition. They are a very good side with the ball in hand and we gave them too much.

"I know there were some issues there with the referee, but a lot of the decisions were right. There were some contentious ones and I felt he should have gone to the video ref on a couple of the tries. I think they were shown to be tries, but I think they were contentious.

"The game was in our control and we don't need to look any further than ourselves for why we lost it."

Matterson reckoned the key moment of the match was when Chase was penalised for not playing on and had instead got up to play the ball with his feet. From the penalty, Catalans went downfield and scored a crucial try that put them eight points up.

He added: "I thought it was harsh, but it was to the letter of the rule.

"It just went the wrong way, but we came up with a real poor defensive error at the other end of the field and all of a sudden we were eight points behind and chasing the game.

"Credit to our guys, they went down to the death and I think they could have won the game in the last couple of sets, but we just didn't show enough composure at the end.

"They held us out and they were just a little bit more composed than us.

"We started off really well. We prepared good and felt the way we wanted to play was right and we showed that in the first 10 minutes.

"But we let them back in the game and made too many mistakes. Too many unforced errors and it gave them opportunities at our end of the field.

"At the end of the day it was a very fine line and we came out of it the wrong end of the result."