Jamie Foster bears no grudges towards St Helens but admits he would love to cut his former club down to size this weekend.

The Bulls winger will make an emotional first appearance against Saints on Saturday as Francis Cummins’ men go in search of their third win from four games.

For Foster the occasion will be momentous in more ways than one – he spent over ten years on the books at St Helens, still lives in the town and remains close to many of their players.

Yet there was more than a little indignity about the manner in which his time at the club ended.

Last year’s fixture between Bradford and Saints saw the winger endure a nightmare display and he never played for his home-town club again.

Caretaker coach Mike Rush banished him to the under-20s side and sent him on loan to Hull before he joined the Bulls at the end of last season.

The 22-year-old, who appeared in two Grand Finals for Saints, said: “I’ve got a lot of good mates there and some of the lads I’ll be coming up against I’ve known since I was six years old.

“I’ve just got to be as professional as I can be about it and hopefully we’ll get the right result.

“Don’t get me wrong, the way my career started there was brilliant.

“After playing in two Grand Finals and a lot of other big games, you could I say shot to fame, so for one bloke to take that away from me single-handedly was tough to take.

“But it’s just one of those things in professional sport.

“There are two ways of looking at it – I can hold a grudge and not move on or I can move on and just forget it.

“Myself and my family decided to do that when I came to Bradford – to clean the slate and start afresh.

“That’s what I’ve done. I’m not clinging on to St Helens with any kind of hopes of returning or anything like that.

“I’ve broken away from there now and have still got a lot of respect for everyone at the club – all the fans were amazing with me.

“But I’m not a Saints player any more, I’m a Bradford Bull, and I’m just concentrating on progressing my career here.”

The former Blackbrook amateur would love to take the spoils this weekend, adding: “My grandad said to me this week, and it’s not often he has a serious word with me, ‘you just need to concentrate on your performance’ because I don’t want the occasion to slip through my fingers.

“Beating Saints would lay down a real marker and make the top teams really start taking us seriously.”