Super League club Castleford Tigers only just edged the Batley Bulldogs in the Betfred Challenge Cup as Craig Lingard picked up his first win as Head Coach at the Jungle against his former side.
Speaking after the game, Lingard relished what he felt was a “scrappy and typical cup tie.”
Speaking to BBC West Yorkshire Sport, Lingard said after the game: “Typical cup tie I guess with the conditions as they were, playing against a real solid top end championship team.
“It was scrappy and frustrating at times, but ultimately we got what we wanted and that was a victory, albeit a scrappy one.”
Castleford Tigers shoot down potential upset
Credit Imago Images
Asked if it was a potential upset for the Castleford Tigers against the Batley Bulldogs, Lingard said: “Of course it was, with us playing as we have been doing in the league, we’ve not won a game in the league, so that were in the equation as well and Batey have been playing really well in the cup competition so far.
“They only just got pipped last week by Featherstone on pretty much the last play of the game so they’re a confident team and a quality team. It had all the hallmarks of a potential cup upset.”
Lingard was also pleased with getting a gritty win rather than a blow out win: “I was pleased with the resilience and the grit and determination to come through the other side. I said to the guys in there that sometimes them scrappy, ugly, gritty victories are better than winning by 40-50 points because sometimes you see where you are really as a group.
“I think it would have been quite easy for us when Batley got eight points in front and it could have been quite easy for us to go into a shell and feel sorry for ourselves and not have the resolve and resilience to come back and get into the game, which I thought we did that pretty well.”
He went on to say that his side are still “miles off”: “They’ve got some grit and determination about them. We’re still miles off where we need to be in terms of being a Super League team and a competitive Super League team.
“We are the team that we are at the minute, a team in transition, a team with a lot of development that needs to be done. There are a lot of people that are new to first-team Super League environments but there’s plenty of potential in there.
“It’s about us now harnessing that potential around the experienced players that we’ve got and building a competitive team for Castleford.”
