Daryl Powell is delighted with Castleford's unity
Last Updated: 04/09/15 12:03pm
Castleford coach Daryl Powell is delighted how well his side have reacted to the Justin Carney affair.
Carney was suspended last week by the Tigers pending an internal investigation, and he looks certain to have played his last match for the club.
Castleford lost 40-26 to Huddersfield on Thursday night in their first match since Carney was dropped, but Powell was delighted with the unity showed by his side.
"The disciplinary is coming to a point where it will hopefully be finalised," Powell said.
"For us, we've moved on, we're getting on with it. It's about the players who are on the field and the people that are important to us. The boys are cracking on and it's testament to them.
"The boys are pretty disappointed about the result but the unity of the team is pretty evident to see.
"We had a bit of illness in the camp as well - Olly Holmes couldn't play and Adam Milner had not trained all week until yesterday - but the boys were awesome. It was a pretty special effort in the circumstances."
The Tigers, who were also without skipper Michael Shenton through injury, led 10-0 after 15 minutes thanks to tries from acting captain Luke Gale and Ashley Gibson but conceded four tries in nine minutes after makeshift centre Mike
McMeeken was sin-binned for a trip.
They trailed 20-10 by the time McMeeken returned to the field but got back to within four points thanks to tries from Luke Dorn and Ben Roberts only for the Giants to finish strongly.
"The points scored when we were a man down completely flipped the game," Powell said. "We were defending pretty well and causing them problems when we got into good field position.
"We got ourselves back to within shooting distance but we couldn't go on with it and I thought their kicking game towards the end was pretty special.
"I thought they deserved to win the game but the final scoreline was a bit harsh.
"We're still in the battle and we showed enough tonight to show we've got a bit about us," Powell added.
Ridiculous
A third win from four Super 8s matches keeps third-placed Huddersfield firmly on course for the semi-finals, although coach Paul Anderson was not completely satisfied with their performance.
"I thought we were pretty average to be honest," he said. "There was every emotion going. In patches we showed some brilliance and some of the tries we scored were ridiculous but there was also some stupidity.
"There were some real good things in there but some we need to work on.
"It's two points which I'm really happy with and we're four in front a very spirited Cas. We're third and we've got to make sure we stay there, it's semi-finals all the way home now."
