Castleford Tigers captain Michael Shenton admits their tight victory against Wakefield Trinity Wildcats last weekend has served as a “wake-up call” for the side heading into the business end of the season, as they look to cement a top two finish this weekend.
Victory against Catalan on Saturday will ensure the Tigers finish at least second – with top spot still a possibility if St Helens slip up at Huddersfield. And Shenton insists that narrow 26-22 win against the Wildcats was a testing challenge for the squad, and they have learned valuable lessons ahead of their quest to reach Old Trafford, which will begin in earnest next week with the start of the play-offs.
When asked if it could be a wake-up call, Shenton said: “Definitely. We lacked a bit of energy after the last couple of weeks. Against Bradford we were OK then in the second half we went away from ourselves a little bit.
“Then against Wakefield we definitely faded; we were 22-0 up, had a foothold in the game then we started coming up with some dumb errors that really hurt us. Then Wakefield got back to back tries.
“It is something you can’t afford to do, especially leading up to what we have got coming up in front of us. But it is a new challenge for us. We have got to learn from that – fortunately we escaped from it and we dug deep.
“The way we started and the way we dug deep and scrambled for the team and gave ourselves an opportunity for this weekend for a top two finish was a real positive though. That showed a lot of character, and we are really positive going into this weekend.”
