Don't know whether to laugh or cry. A nailbiter at the end to send any newbies home from being on the edge of their seats. Well we didn't lose so its a positive with a bigger crowd than usual. Few of my friends didn't make it as well being Friday evening game.

I would have settled for a point any time, before, after and during the game. They were bigger and their pack was faster. Their half backs bossed the show. However, we showed great spirit and if we can recreate that more often a push for a play-off place may be possible. Lamont had his best game in IMO, though the ref clearly had no idea what a forward pass was, and their lying on technique was nearly as good as Hudds.

Apparently forward passes are in the championship rules



5 seconds on the pitch and Lamont scores with a blistering run ! that was class !!

Why so late in bringing Pryce on? How bad is Purdo's injury? What does Calderwood have to do to displace O'Callaghan from the side?

Purdo looked slightly concussed as he walked away to try and play on and was "ordered" off. From where I was sitting he seemed to be holding his nose as he got up.

Why did Gale's try get chalked off? Was at the other end of the East stand so didn't have a good view of the incident, was too busy celebrating (as the PA was playing 'Eat My Goal'!) before noticing all the Cas fans cheering from behind the sticks when the try was disallowed!

Its a shame that Pryce came on at all with that short kick off which everyone knew was going to happen but he couldn't deal with it. Apparently he refused to come into the bar tonight after the game to meet the fans...which is a bit odd to me.

I was at the under 20's game last week and Calderwood did not perform at all and was not interested in playing, so why should he displace O'Callaghan after O'Callaghan's good performance against Cas.

Also it looked like Purdo was holding his arm/shoulder when taken off.

I'd forgotten about that in all the excitement. I was between the 20/30 lines at that end and couldn't see any obvious infringement. Completely gobsmacked when it was cancelled; normally you know when something might be dubious.

RE: Purdo's injury, it is to his shoulder, the bad shoulder, he couldn't move it after the game, and is going to hospital tomorrow for a scan.
iirc, Gales try was disallowed for ball stealing, the TJ disallowed it.
RE: Pryce Short Kick Off - He knew the ball was going to be coming to him, they had lined him on that side on purpose, we should of had Howell there, he is our best catcher. KP, as a man that is that big, he should be jumping higher, instead of his stupid little jump. He looks useless, he really should of finished the Dorn break, with the space he had, and the 'speed' he has, tripled with his size, he should of powered over the line under the posts.
One of the best games for Gale imo, ran the show for us today, excellent chip over the top and following up aswell for our last try.
Williams had by far his best game for us imo, made strong runs, didn't tackle too well, but was making metres.
Lamont looked enthusiastic, and eager, took his try well.
Clubb, strong again at centre, two tries on his 100th game, credit to the lad. Even after getting kicked in the "B0llox" before his second try.
Dorn, very effective at fullback with his runs, very nice breaks he made, deserved a finish, but very good game.
O'Callaghan, very strong in attack, still not the best in defense, but wasn't bad. Seemed comfortable under the highball, but the lad will not score if he continues to step on the inside each time he gets the ball on the wing. The defense is sliding towards him, and he's side stepping towards them, he will not win this. He needs to try and back his pace maybe, but other than that. Good game, took the ball up well in most sets that we had.
Howell, had a solid game, didn't do any of his stupid antics, but he didn't shine, was happy with that performance.
Randall, still isnt a 7.. but solid.
Ellis, good performance, and good support play for our last try.
The forwards were solid, made metres, and stuck to the game plan set out for them.
I feel that after last week's loss, Powell clearly tightened the defense, and then the Tigers realised this, and started spreading the ball out wide, getting around us instead, but there was still some woeful tackling in the build up to one Cas try, but at least there wasn't much of it in this game when compared to others.
So a huge improvement from last weeks effort.

Excellent post

Good summary Tim-

Not sure about J O'C. Very solid under the high ball, but does anyone expect him to score?

A huge improvement on recent weeks even if neither side was in great nick. I was impressed with Clubb - NOTE TO ROB POWELL: KEEP HIM AT CENTRE FFS

We still lack that cutting edge a quality scrum-half would give us and as a mate of mine pointed out, in the middle of the pitch we still have that McDermott-esque 'headless chicken' approach sometimes where we panic and lose the ball on the second tackle, sometimes we are just so amateurish when all we need to do is collect five solid drives. Cas didn't do this and that's why they looked much the better team for fair portions of the game. You can tell they haven't played a top side yet though - Huddersfield or Warrington should beat them with ease.

Like PP I'd have taken a point at any juncture in the game, can't dispute the decision to award them the penalty either it seemed pretty obvious. There was some frustratingly slack defending at times but then 'twas ever thus. Its still important to stop the losing rut and we have two games we must win against improving Catalans and Salford, who are pretty mediocre. Hope Purdo's injury is not too serious because we have so little depth in the squad we'd really miss him.

Even though it wasn't a win I think all the neutrals and new fans enjoyed themselves, nothing like a tight contest to get a few people interested even if it wasn't champagne footy. Hopefully some will come back on Good Friday!

Rangi Chase is a great player to watch- Must be a nightmare to defend against.

Thought the forwards went well last night. Dave Williams took the ball in and made some decent metres

O'Callaghan is pants

Gales chalked off try, ref simulated that the ball was ripped out.

How could you tell by watching yesterdays game that we haven't played a top side yet?
Oh, and we have played Huddersfield (a top side), and beat them more comfortably than the scoreline suggested.

Oops, I stand corrected! Still, I think the league position is a tad false. You've made a great start though, can't fault you for that.

A rollercoaster of a match. Although Quins didn't win it was a better performance.

Thought it was a fairly dismal affair between 2 poor sides. Castleford will get battered against the likes of Wigan, Warrington etc. A decent ending and a very pleasing point.

Quirky point

Lamont scored a try for Skolars against leaders Swinton on Saturday
Lamont scored a try for Quins against leaders Castleford on Friday!

The Highlights on Sky Sports News are showing Gales 'Disallowed' try and calling its Clubby's 2nd.
And when showing Ellis's try, they said it was Temata offloading to Dorn to score.
An absolute shambles of a report




On the game, I thought Dave Williams had by far his best game, made some strong metres.
And Clubb again was very good, he gets slaughtered from all quarters on here but is now our joint leading scorer for the season.
Gale was the best player on the pitch

Dunno about Gale being our best player, if he'd brought his kicking boots we'd have won! Still not knocking the spirit shown in the fightback, just gutted we conceded a soft, kickable penalty from Cas' last restart. It would be nice if for one game we could play for more than the first and last 15 minutes of the game! Great fightback but for long spells we were clueless and Cas should have been 20 plus points to the good before we got back into it.

If Cas played as they did yesterday, they will get battered by a 'top' club, Gale was our best player imo, he may of missed 2 kicks, but he controlled the game well for us, and made plenty of breaks with his quick feet.

Probably the 2nd poorest we've played this season and ultimately didn't get the win. Should have done though at 24-10 up with 12 to go. Pleased Dicko slotted the pen over as I didn't think we deserved to lose. You lot got on a roll though and we were out of our feet. Ellis, Dorn, Gale were quality.


3rd time down to the stoop and I really enjoyed it again.

Maybe 3rd in the league is a little flattering, but I also knew you lot would play considerably better then the past few weeks.


Good old D-rave with another enthusiastic post.

I'm a little gutted for obvious reasons but also relieved. Just wondering what you guys are feeling after your comeback then to draw? Are you a little gutted or happy after being 14 behind?