Super League champions Leeds Rhinos travel to St Helens on Friday in a clash being shown live on White Rat TV at 8pm.
After an opening loss to Huddersfield, Saints are unbeaten in three Super League clashes - the latest a 36-10 trouncing of Bradford Bulls - to sit in fifth in the table, a point and a place ahead of the Rhinos, who have played a game less.
In team news, Jonny Lomax stays at full-back for Saints in the absence of injured duo Paul Wellens and Lance Hohaia. Acting captain Jon Wilkin and Gary Wheeler continue their new half-back pairing following the win at Bradford, while experienced prop forward Paul Clough is set to make his first appearance of the season after recovering from injury.
For Leeds, Kallum Watkins continues at full-back in the absence of Zak Hardaker. Prop Richard Moore, who was 18th man against Melbourne, is in the reckoning, while fellow front rower Ryan Bailey has also been named in the 19-man squad despite undergoing knee surgery.
"We opened up Melbourne on a number of occasions, which not many sides will do, and we pushed them all the way. "Whilst no one at the Rhinos will ever be satisfied with a loss, we were able to take encouragement from our performance.
"We have always known that we have Saints next up and that is what our focus is now on." St Helens have won their last five home meetings with Leeds and the Rhinos have particularly painful memories of a 46-6 hammering on their first visit to Langtree Park last March, when the Leeds players were left red-faced after dying their hair for charity.
"I think it is fair to say that St Helens have done a job on us in the last four meetings between the two sides and for the last two seasons we have not performed well against them," McDermott admitted. "We are certainly ready for a big performance after last week and are looking forward to it."
After making a disappointing start to the season under new coach Nathan Brown, Saints got their campaign up and running with an impressive win at Bradford last week and he is hoping for more improvement against the champions.
"I'm sure we will improve again," Brown said. "History says that this club gets up for games against Leeds, Wigan and Warrington and I'm sure the effort will be good and we will improve this week. "It will be a good challenge. They are a good side and did the English competition proud against Melbourne too."
St Helens squad: Gardner, Turner, Soliola, Meli, Lomax, Roby, McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Puletua, Wilkin, Manu, Laffranchi, Flanagan, Clough, Wheeler, Jones, Greenwood, Walmsley, Walker, Percival.
Leeds Rhinos squad: Watkins, Moon, Hall, McGuire, Burrow, Leuluai, McShane, Peacock, Jones-Buchanan, Ablett, Sinfield, Ward, Delaney, Bailey, Kirke, Clarkson, Achurch, Moore, Vickers.