A despondent Daryl Powell was left downbeat after watching has Castleford side fall to defeat against Warrington.
Despite long periods on top, a late try saw the Tigers fall to a fourth defeat in five games as Matty Ashton’s score saw them go down 12-10.
It was a damaging defeat for the Tigers’ play-off hopes, with Powell’s men boasting a 45% win record compared to fourth-placed Wigan, who are on 70%.
“That’s a punishing defeat,” he said.
“In the manner that it was and nobody knows what this percentage will do to the table. We would be six points behind instead of the two, that would have been significant, it’s a rattler that for us.
“I think it’s frustrating because we lost right at the end but we’re just not playing great at the moment.
“We worked hard tonight but we’re just up and down, we can’t piece a game together. I just feel nervous watching us, the boys are frustrated because they aren’t playing as well as they want to play. Since the resumption, we feel our skills and general play are a bit down.”
Asked why he believes his side’s execution is down, he said: “We trained poorly before the game, we haven’t got a flow about us at the moment.
“The boys have had a long time off, it’s hard to train, we’ve trained a couple of times before this game but we can’t do enough really. I’m not making excuses, the whole competition is a little bit off and it’s to be understood but for us, we’re just not playing well.”
