Wakefield 24-25 Castleford: Luke Gale's last-gasp drop goal snatches Super League win for Tigers
Last Updated: 07/07/17 9:49am
Castleford overturned a 16-0 half-time deficit to beat Wakefield 25-24 in a thrilling derby at the Beaumont Legal Stadium to pull 10 points clear at the top of the Betfred Super League.
A seventh successive win over their near-neighbours enables the Tigers to put one hand on the league leaders' shield but for the second week in a row they lived dangerously.
Trinity, who had a chance to climb back into the top four, looked to have earned a precious victory when scrum-half Liam Finn kicked his sixth goal from as many attempts to put his side 24-18 in front.
However, centre Jake Webster crashed over for his side's fourth try a minute later and, having levelled the scores with the conversion, Luke Gale won the game with a drop goal with 90 seconds left on the clock.
Trinity's head of rugby John Kear had called on his team to give his old club "a good hiding" and coach Chris Chester showed his intentions by including four front-row forwards on the bench.
The home side were physical from the start and Castleford, who clung on for a 24-22 win over Hull a week earlier, looked visibly shocked by the onslaught.
The Tigers gifted their hosts the first score, second rower Dean Hadley intercepting Jesse Sene-Lefao's careless pass and getting pacey winger Ben Jones-Bishop racing 80 metres for his 17th Super League try of the season.
That early try, converted by Finn, rocked the Tigers and four successive penalties enabled Wakefield to pile on the pressure, with Finn extending the lead with the first of two penalties after former Castleford favourite Craig Huby had been held up over the line.
Castleford had two near-misses, Webster losing the ball going for the line and winger Greg Eden denied a try for an obstruction in the build-up, but were generally out-played in the first half.
A break by full-back Scott Grix created the position for impressive hooker Kyle Wood to force his way over from dummy half for Trinity's second try and Finn extended the lead to 16-0 by the break.
After failing to score in the second half of their previous game against Hull, the leaders had gone 80 minutes without breaching their opponents' line. But that quickly changed after Wakefield made an error-strewn start to the second half, which enabled the visitors to hit back with two tries in five minutes.
Eden pounced on a handling error by Joe Arundel to sprint 90 metres for his 32nd try of the season and prop Grant Millington took a short ball from Paul McShane to crash over for his sixth.
Gale added both conversions to cut the deficit to just four points and it was level after 54 minutes when second rower Mike McMeeken took Greg Minikin's pass to scored a third try.
Gale's third goal nudged his side in front for the first time but Trinity got their second wind in the final quarter and looked to have won the game when the barnstorming David Fifita bundled three defenders out of the way to touch down with 11 minutes left.
Finn kicked the conversion and added a third penalty after 72 minutes to open up a six-point lead.
But there was time for one more twist when Webster barged his way over and Gale locked up the scores with the conversion before sealing a memorable win with a drop goal.
