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Exclusive: Andy Last says Castleford Tigers must improve to avoid relegation

There were some huge games last night as Warrington Wolves and St Helens served up a classic and in a Golden Point classic Wigan Warriors were stunned by Wakefield Trinity on a night that upped the pressure on Castleford Tigers.

Why? Because now the Tigers only have a two point advantage on Wakefield in the relegation battle at the bottom.

Cas were beaten by Leigh Leopards last night and now their fans are genuinely worried about the threat of relegation in a repeat of 2006.

Andy Last spoke after the 34-16 defeat and explained to Serious About Rugby League what let the Tigers down: “I’m disappointed with our ball control tonight. Leigh are a very dangerous attacking team and we gifted them far too much good position through poor errors.

“We previewed their ferocity with line speed and we needed to play with better shape to negate that but when we made those errors and then we fell into that trap of going one out.

“It played right into their hands and then they dominated field position which hurt us. They are very slick but defensively I thought we did a good job in the first 20 minutes but we didn’t learn our lessons and we gifted them the ball.”

Last was also unhappy with some “dubious” forward pass calls and other decisions that he felt went against his team, with the home support at the Jungle not shy in voicing their discontent at some of the calls.

“I felt the first one was a dubious one and could have been called forward and the first score in any game is significant,” said Last. “There were a couple of line balls and they could argue we got away with some.”

“There were other decisions too. I think it was 22-16 and Gareth O’Brien drops the ball and there was some hesitation about whether there was a knock on which was a strange call.

“Then the referee pulls Cain Robb for not putting his head in the back of a scrum. That’s one of them calls that you probably won’t see again this year and it had a big momentum shift on the outcome of the game.”

As mentioned, the result leaves Castleford just two points ahead of local rivals Wakefield, who have won three of their last four games to give themselves a chance of escaping relegation.

At this stage if that was to happen, it would be at the expense of the Tigers and Last admitted that his team need to start winning matches otherwise it could be a very nervous end to the season.

“We know what Super League is like this season, everyone seems to be beating everyone but it’s important that we focus on us. We know that if we take care of ourselves we’ll be okay because you don’t gain anything looking at other teams.

“It’s only going to go one way if you start relying on other teams rather than yourself, and we know we need to start winning more matches and we have a firm belief we can do that.

“Our peformances need to improve but we’re going to work hard to be better next week and have a real go at Hull next Saturday, we believe there is enough in this squad to start playing better and winning more games.”

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