 | Wigan (12) 24 Tries: Calderwood, Higham (2), McEvoy Goals: Tickle, Richards 3
Castleford: (22) 30 Tries: Platt 2, Viane, Davis, Handforth, Manu Goals: Davis 2, Huby
|
Wigan's miserable season continued as they were handed their 11th Super League defeat of the season by Castleford on Friday night. The Tigers ran in four tries through Michael Platt (2), Gray Viane and Brad Davis to lead 22-12 at the break.
Wigan scored the first try of the second half through Nathan McEvoy to cut the gap to four points.
But further tries from Paul Handforth and Willie Manu made the game safe for Cas despite a late Mick Higham try.
Castleford took an early lead when Platt went over, with Davis adding the extras, but Wigan were soon level as Mark Calderwood scored, with Danny Tickle converting.
Cas were soon on the board again as Davis converted Viane's try but once again Wigan levelled matters as Pat Richards goaled Higham's try, but the Tigers then pulled away.
Platt added his second try and although Davis missed the conversion he went over for a try of his own on the stroke of half-time and Craig Huby's conversion made it 22-12 at the break.
Wigan were first to score in the second half as McEvoy crashed over and Richards' conversion cut the gap to four points, only for Handforth to immediately hit back for Cas.
Manu's try extended their lead to 30-18 with 15 minutes to go and although Higham went over to complete his brace, with Richards converting, Cas held on.
Wigan coach Brian Noble
"We need to recognise our backs are against the wall, and we need to roll our sleeves up a little bit harder for the full 80 minutes.
"I thought we responded pretty well in the second half but the reality is we still conceded too many points.
"We've just to convert a lot of the effort from a lot of people into a bit of game-sense."
Castleford coach Terry Matterson
"We've still got areas to improve defensively because at the end of the day they got 24 points.
"I'd like to try to work on getting that down because our for and against is pretty poor.
"But it was a really good effort - I think everyone could see Wigan came to play today, but we stuck with it and went over the top of them."
Wigan: Ashton, Calderwood, Goulding, McAvoy, Richards, Orr, Moran, Logan, Godwin, Seu Seu, Tickle, Fletcher, O'Loughlin. Replacements: Paleaaesina, Hargreaves, Higham, James.
Castleford: Platt, Pryce, Shenton, McGoldrick, Dyer, Lupton, Davis, Fa'aoso, Henderson, Nutley, Roarty, Manu, Bird. Replacements: Ward, Huby, Viane, Handforth.
Referee: K Kirkpatrick (Warrington)