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Andy Last reveals how likely it is that he will get the Castleford Tigers job

On Thursday night Castleford Tigers came up short against Salford Red Devils as they remain on two wins from nine.

Speaking after the game, interim Head Coach Andy Last was asked if it was a game that got away from them.

He said on BBC Radio Leeds: “Yeah, probably. I can’t fault the lad’s effort, I thought that was sensational. We’ve taken some real positive steps in terms of defence, defending our try line very very well but we’re just doing too much of it.

“Unforced errors coming out yardage, I think there was a period in the first half round about the 25 minute mark to the 35 minute mark where we completed one out of six set.

“It always finds a way to come back and bite you and where it came back was just before half-time when they scored a try, then it came back in the last 15 minutes when we just had no energy to get ourselves up the field.

“Ultimately that was the period that probably cost us the two points tonight.

“We’re the masters of our own downfall. We spoke at half-time about not making type one errors, that’s unforced ones that you just can’t afford, and second set of the second half Niall drops a ball with no pressure on him. It puts us under pressure, we dodge a bullet and then we have a loose pass from dummy-half which almost results in Salford scoring.

“How many more times and how many more ways can you say that we can’t afford to make those types of mistakes. It’s rugby league suicide.

“We’re making too many of those errors and it’s robbing us of the energy to attack with fluency and confidence, it isn’t costing us loads of points because we are defending well on our try line.

“I’m going to have to start thinking about making some changes for those guys who are consistently making those errors. The only way we’ll get out of this hole is to keep working hard, as we are, but to tidy up our execution.

“We defended really well, our problem is that we’re just not sustaining field position and pressure to ask enough questions.”

That said he believes they have improved overall since he has taken over:

“I think there’s been some improvements defensively but offensively, no. I don’t think we’re attacking with enough fluency, I don’t think we’re executing well enough.

“There’s some reasons for that, I don’t think we’re generating enough chaos and ruck tempo at times. We need to play with more variation and more shape.

“We’ll need to get back to the drawing board and try get some more potency in our attack.

“I think we’re defending well which is something to be proud of and take confidence from, but I want us to be more potent with the ball.

“I’m proud of the fact that we’re competing hard but for me that’s a given, you should compete hard every time you play. Sometimes I feel as though when I’m saying ‘the effort was there’, well yeah it should be there. You’re a professional rugby player and you’ve got a duty to pull on that shirt and give everything you’ve got. What I’m frustrated with is our execution being off.”

Yesterday, Last had an interview for the job permanently. He said of his prospects: “Regarding my prospects, fifty fifty.”

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