Castleford break losing run to dent Warrington's play off hopes
Castleford snapped a run of four straight defeats to record their first win under interim head coach Chris Chester.
Warrington's hopes of wrestling back into the Betfred Super League play-off picture drizzled out at The Jungle as hosts Castleford snapped a run of four straight defeats to record their first win under interim head coach Chris Chester.
Wins for top six rivals Hull FC and Wakefield over the weekend had made it imperative for Sam Burgess's side to respond but the Wolves delivered an uninspiring and error-strewn performance to fall to a 20-14 defeat.
Josh Simm soared over for the decisive try in the 64th minute in a move started by a crunching tackle by Jeremiah Simbiken on Marc Sneyd, and the hosts held on to deliver a solid response to last weekend's abject defeat at crisis club Salford.
The home side proved best at adapting to the wet conditions from the start and were good value for their two-point half-time lead through tries from Deajarn Asi and the impressive George Lawler.
Despite having opened the scoring through a seventh-minute try from Sam Stone, the visitors seldom looked likely to head home with two points from a fixture of such apparent importance to the rest of their campaign.
Asi splashed through the downpour to score and set up a levelling kick for Chris Atkin, and on 18 minutes Lachlan Fitzgibbon let Asi's low kick slide through his grasp under the posts and set up Lawler to put the hosts ahead.
Zac Cini's errant pass towards Simm on the right denied Castleford the chance to go further ahead after another slip, this time from Matt Dufty, and Jake Thewlis dived in at the corner to haul the Wolves back within two on the stroke of half-time.
But Burgess's side continued to offer negligible threat in an uneventful start to the second half, with the scoreboard not troubled further until Atkin - who would contribute a faultless four kicks from four - converted a penalty to nudge Castleford four points clear on the hour mark.
Bolstered by a solid rearguard that was almost unrecognisable to the one that proved so porous at Salford last week, the Tigers stepped it up and went further clear with the move of the match four minutes later.
Simbiken's tackle forced a spill from Sneyd, and Cini zoomed over halfway before sending Simm over for his side's conclusive third.
Atkin's kick stretched his side's lead to 10 and although Stefan Ratchford crossed in the corner to shift Wire back within touching distance, the hosts held out for a rare and richly deserved win.