Luke Dorn talks about the start of the new season and life back in the north

It was good to finally get underway again in Super League, particularly after a long pre-season. It had been cold, training had been hard work, so it was rewarding to begin with two points against Bradford.

Pre-season can feel long, very long, and I've usually had enough of it by the second week of November. But once you're about a month away from playing the time seems to go really quickly and the excitement seems to build. We were actually fortunate in the fact one of your friendlies got cancelled due to the conditions. Not playing gave us extra time to have another tough week, and in a way that has helped us be in good shape for the start of the new campaign. And then finally, FINALLY, opening weekend comes around. To be honest, our first regular season game against the Bulls was a little scrappy, particularly in the first half. We came home with a bit of a wet sail when we started to find our groove. But it was still good that we were able to grind out a win when we weren't quite at our best. When we had played Bradford the last time, in pre-season at the same venue, there was about 1,800 people watching, there was no music, to be honest no nothing really. Second time around there was something like 9,000 in attendance. That, plus the pre-match fireworks and the realisation there were two precious points on the line, created a real atmosphere. You could certainly feel that on the pitch. Both sets of fans were great and it made for a really good day. Of course, it is only two points. As for the long term at Castleford, our aim for 2014 is to get in the top eight. In fact, that's a bare minimum for us - we all hope we can get a bit higher up than that. We have got pretty high expectations within our squad, both individually and collectively. But then that's what you do all that work in the winter months for - to gain success on the field.