St Helens beat Castleford 21-14 in Super League clash at Langtree Park
Last Updated: 02/03/15 11:00am
St Helens recovered from their 39-0 World Club Challenge humiliation by Australian champions South Sydney to beat Castleford 21-14 at Langtree Park.
Keiron Cunningham's men received a rugby lesson from the Aussies five days ago but Adam Swift, Tommy Makinson, Josh Jones and Mark Percival tries were enough to edge out the battling Tigers.
When Jones scored Saints' third, gifted to him by Justin Carney's woeful pass, the hosts seemed almost home and hosed at 14-0 up. .
But Castleford, who had had two first-half tries controversially chalked off for forward passes, hit back through winger Carney's two tries in three minutes to reduce the deficit to 14-8.
Super League champions St Helens stepped up their intensity, even after prop Kyle Amor had seen yellow for a dangerous tackle around the hour mark, as their young winger Mark Percival finished in a corner three minutes later.
Percival kicked his second goal to extend the advantage to 12 points at 20-12.
Jon Wilkin lobbed over a drop goal from close range for Saints to put them 13 clear before Jordan Tansey replied with a try for Luke Gayle to finally convert successfully.
Victory helped Saints climb above Leeds at the top of the table on points difference after three domestic wins from three, while last season's surprise packages Castleford have yet to taste victory in their trio of league fixtures.
Saints had demonstrated the clinical finishing missing on Sunday after just 10 minutes, creating an overlap for left winger Swift to open the scoring and Percival to goal.
That followed a fumble inside his own 20-metre area by Tansey and the full-back and substitute Ryan Boyle were pulled back from crossing the whitewash for forward plays before half-time.
The misses began to look costly when Saints added a second try three minutes before the break, dangerous full-back Jonny Lomax taking Travis Burns' short pass to open up the Cas defence and get right winger Makinson over at the corner for his third try in as many league games.
Trailing 10-0 at half-time, Castleford left themselves with a seemingly hopeless task within two minutes of the re-start when Carney produced a wayward pass after fielding Burns' kick 10 metres from his own line to present St Helens centre Josh Jones with a simple try.
Nothing, it seemed, would go right for the Daryl Powell's men, but Carney struck twice in 180 seconds to blow the game wide open.
Michael Shenton demonstrated his class to get his winger over for the first while scrum-half Gale came up with a perfectly-judged kick to the corner for the Australian's second.
Twelve-man Saints made light of Amor's absence for a 'crusher' tackle on Tansey after Percival took Jones' pass to produce a devastating finish at the corner. He also kicked the goal before skipper Jon Wilkin's drop made sure of the two points.
Gallant Castleford continued to press though, and Tansey scored a consolation try two minutes from the end, touching down Gale's kick over the Saints defence with the latter converting.
