Friday 29 September 2017 09:54, UK
Castleford coach Daryl Powell watched his side battle their way to a maiden Super League Grand Final before bringing them down to earth with a warning.
Powell's men needed a golden-point drop goal in extra time from Luke Gale to edge out St Helens 23-22 in an epic first semi-final on Thursday and will now take on the winners of Friday night's clash between Leeds and Hull FC in the title decider at Old Trafford on October 7.
The Tigers, runaway winners of the League Leaders' Shield, will be favourites to become only the fifth team to win a title in the 21 years of Super League but Powell says they will need to improve on their semi-final display and pointed the finger in particular at stand-off Ben Roberts.
"There's a few things in there that we'll have to learn from because I don't think we played that well," said Powell.
"We made a lot of errors in attacking positions. I thought we went after too much. We needed a little bit more stability in attacking field positions. Benny would have had a game he would want to forget on our right edge.
"We allowed St Helens out of their half too much for a big game. While we managed to win it in the end, there are some key lessons moving forward for us."
St Helens ran in three tries in the last 10 minutes to set up a dramatic finish and were left to rue an off day from goalkicking centre Mark Percival, who succeeded with just one of his five attempts.
Gale, conversely, kicked five from five in addition to his drop goal and also scored a try - a man-of-the-match contribution just 16 days after being rushed into hospital for an emergency appendectomy.
Powell, who lost a Championship Grand Final during his time with Featherstone to a golden-point drop goal, had some sympathy for Saints.
"Saints really challenged us and we had to find every bit of reserve that we've got to come out on top," he said.
