Tigers leave it late

Widders: broke Wakefield's hearts with his try at the death

Castleford moved a step closer to clinching a place in the play-offs with a 34-30 win over Wakefield, though they left it late at the Rapid Solicitors Stadium.

A try from Dean Widders in the final two minutes settled a see-saw Yorkshire derby and clinched a crucial two points for the Tigers.

The triumph moves Terry Matterson's side on to 26 points with two games to go, meaning they look odds-on to finish the regular season in the top eight.

Wakefield had led 24-22 at the end of the first half having made the best possible start to proceedings with two tries inside three minutes.

Early burst

Jeremy Smith's break down the middle gave Glenn Morrison a run-in underneath the uprights to break the deadlock and Paul Johnson quickly followed him over the line, bursting onto a pass to force his way over.

Dale Morton slotted over both conversion attempts to leave the Tigers staring at a 12-point deficit having barely had their hands on the ball.

They recovered from such a shocking start with Danny Orr's pass that put Richard Mathers through a huge gap to get Castleford up and running, the creator stepping up to knock over the extras and cut the deficit in half.

They then hit the front thanks to two tries in the space of four minutes from Willie Isa, both of them coming down the left-hand side.

The Wildcats did roar back with a try from Matthew Wildie out of dummy half, only for their opponents to respond with an effort from Ben Davies.

Yet a topsy-turvy first 40 minutes finished as it had started with Wakefield running in an easy try. This time it was Semi Tadulala who was the scorer, the veteran winger cantering over after picking off a Nick Youngquest pass.

The Castleford winger did make amends for his error in the second half by coasting over for a 55th-minute try that edged his team in front again.

Missed opportunities

He would have had a second too had it not been for a forward pass, while Mathers wasted a glorious opportunity to grab his second of the contest when he spilled the ball in the process of planting it down.

The misses proved costly as Chris Dean crossed on the right flank on the first set of six after Youngquest's sin-binning for holding on in the tackle.

A Morton penalty with 10 minutes to play then put Wakefield two clear and with Richard Owen seeing an effort chalked off for a forward pass, it seemed John Kear's side would hold out in front of their own fans.

Widders had other ideas though, taking Rangi Chase's long pass out on the left before throwing a superb dummy that opened up a clear path to the line.

Orr added the conversion - his fifth goal of the night - and the Tigers managed to cling on through to the final hooter, putting them within touching distance of the play-offs. For Wakefield, a difficult campaign on and off the pitch can't end soon enough - at least they will get a chance for revenge next season.