Terry Matterson felt his Castleford side turned in their best performance of the season in the 28-26 win over Bradford.
McNamara insists Bulls will bounce back from disappointing defeat
Castleford coach Terry Matterson felt his side turned in their best performance of the season in the 28-26 win over Bradford.
The Tigers left it late to claim the spoils at the Jungle, Rangi Chase's try with just two minutes on the clock sealing a superb comeback.
Kirk Dixon's conversion gave the hosts a narrow two-point advantage after they had trailed the Bulls by as many as 16 points at one stage.
Matterson admits he would not have been too unhappy had his side failed to win a match he felt was a fine example of what the sport is all about.
Great advertisement
"I think I said in the programme notes, the thing I am pleased about is that we were in the game until the last minute and it was a great advertisement for the game," said Matterson.
"I think over the course of the game I wouldn't have been too unhappy if we came up short because Bradford played really well.
"But it was by far their best performance this year. We've got the belief here and we went to the end.
"We were in the game until the last minute and gave ourselves a chance of winning and to say I'm happy is an understatement."
Dixon's late conversion was his fourth successful kick of the afternoon, a crucial effort in comparision to Bradford's Paul Deacon, who could only land two of his attempts at goal.
"I just want to mention Kirk Dixon because we won it on our goal kicking again. That's two weeks in a row, which amongst other things, won us the game," Matterson added.
"It was an outstanding goal kicking exhibition again and I'm really pleased it won us the game. You look at two weeks ago and he was 16 from 28 and you've always got to look at other options and we've got other kickers.
"We score a hell of a lot of tries in the corner because of how we play and that was the case today but that's two weeks in a row it's got us home and you've got to have faith in what you go with."
Bradford boss Steve McNamara admitted his side paid the price for a disappointing conclusion having seemed to be in complete control.
However, the under-fire coach insists there were still positive signs and is confident he can lift morale ahead of the Challenge Cup clash with Catalans Dragons next week.
Improved performance
"We were in complete control for 68 or 69 minutes and we played reasonably well, did a lot of things right but then we've obviously had a disaster in the last 11 or 12 minutes," he said.
"I think when we didn't field the kick-off we let the ball bounce into touch and the momentum swung from that point.
"I've got to be careful. It was a far improved performance and we did a lot of things right but it can be a cruel game at times as we saw on the other side last week.
"It won't be hard they're a good bunch and they will be right for next week.
"They should take a lot of positives. It would be easy for me to completely overreact and you can see how many good things they did during the game and they are hugely disappointed as is everybody involved with us at this moment in time. It's my job as a coach to look at it sensibly and we'll do that."
