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Castleford Tigers suffer two major blows as Lee Radford makes hilarious jibe at his side’s performance against Warrington Wolves

Castleford Tigers kept their Super League play-off hopes alive with a brilliant 19-18 comeback over the Warrington Wolves last night.

Matt Dufty opened the scoring early on after a Josh Thewlis break and the Wolves doubled their lead on 15 minutes when Stefan Ratchford produced a nifty side-step to go under the posts.

12-0 down at half-time and Castleford had a lot to do in the second forty minutes, despite finishing off the first-half in good spirits.

That good spirits certainly proved dividends in the second-half as two tries from Derrell Olpherts and one from Jake Mamo handed the Tigers an 19-12 lead after Danny Richardson had slotted over all three conversions and a drop-goal for good measure.

That being said, Warrington hit back through Peter Mata’utia to set up a grandstand finish with five minutes left, but Castleford held on.

It was an awful first 40 minutes from the Tigers with head coach Lee Radford coming up with an interesting analogy.

“I was very, very calm at half-time,” Radford toldĀ BBC Radio Leeds.

“I’ve just never seen a game of rugby league like that. We had a 27 per cent completion rate in the first half.

“We forgot how to dummy-half pass, we forgot how to run with the ball and how to play the ball. To go in only 12-0 down was unreal because we literally just defended for 40 minutes.

“I used the expression at half-time: we played like we had a wet finger in a socket that first 40 minutes with the ball and I think that’s the best analogy for that.

“We are a lot better side when we keep hold of it.”

Radford did single out praise for the returning Nathan Massey, but highlighted just how important this win was in the grand scheme of the play-offs.

“I thought Nathan Massey, the minutes he played were phenomenal, but it was the be all and end all tonight and to win it in the matter we did doesn’t surprise me with this crew.

“I don’t know what the tackle count was but I reckon it was nearly triple theirs, but we couldn’t afford to lose tonight. We need three from three.”

Radford did confirm two major blows from that game, including Kenny Edwards who went off with a HIA and didn’t return whilst Gareth O’Brien suffered a knee injury.

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