CASTLEFORD TIGERS coach Danny McGuire took stock after his side’s 30-12 home defeat by Huddersfield Giants and said: “It feels like it’s one step forward but then a few steps back at the moment.”
Having fallen agonisingly short against reigning champions Wigan, who were 26-20 winners at The Jungle, third-bottom Castleford were hopeful of backing up that promising display against a side who started the game four points below them.
“I thought it was a really flat performance,” said McGuire. “We didn’t do anything we spoke about doing.
“I don’t think we were prepared to do the tough stuff, we thought it would just happen and it doesn’t work like that.
“We can’t string together performances back-to-back. It’s really frustrating.
“We had a really good spell just before half-time where we looked good with the ball, but I think that papers over a not-good performance overall.
“It feels like it’s one step forward but then a few steps back. We need to find some consistency and a way of playing well week-to-week.”
McGuire added: “I thought Huddersfield were the better team in a poor game”, while Giants coach Luke Robinson said: “The first ten minutes summed up the match for me. We lost a man (Zac Woolford) to the sin bin in the first minute, but we were calm and composed and stuck to our guns.
“Castleford are a really tough team to play, especially here and speaking as someone who has played here many times.
“So to play the way we did in the first half, especially when we were down to twelve, gave us a stranglehold on the game.
“I thought we did a lot of hard work in the first half and that really paid off for us in the final ten minutes of the game.”