It was Castleford’s first victory in six games, and head coach Daryl Powell was pleased with how his side performed – particularly in defence.
The opening 15 minutes saw Leeds have a number of opportunities to get over the line, only to be saved by superb Tigers scrambling defence.
But, Powell also knows that his players need to improve.
“It was a tough game, a little bit helter skelter,” Powell said.
“We didn’t really have much control and they had 70% territory so we spent a lot of time defending our own line – some of it was our own doing, but we were so desperate to win the game tonight.
“I don’t know if you’ve had COVID, but it’s tough to exercise after, and so many of these boys are coming back from that and if you put that into the mix it was a terrific win.
“We were under so much pressure in that first-half and they’ve got some really strong players on the edges and we shut them down consistently.
“We built up a 14-0 lead, then the game flipped a little bit on the sinbinning but I thought our try-line defence was awesome.”
Powell told his players before the game just how important this game was heading into the business end of the season.
“We had to win tonight; it was so important and that was my message to the boys.
“I think we’ve got seven games left, but I want us to enjoy the challenge in front of us and we did a good job of that tonight.
“We’ve had so many different teams out there in this period and the amount of games they’ve had it’s been so sporadic, so to put that performance out there was incredible.”
The Castleford head coach once more highlighted just how difficult this season has been to coach.
“This has been a ridiculous season to manage – we got to Wembley and that put more pressure on and with COVID around it, it’s been ridiculous.
“We’ve got do our level best to get in the top six, but when we have our best side on the field
