Miserable Easter for Wolves

Warrington have completed a miserable Easter by losing 28-6 to Castleford at the Halliwell Jones Stadium - the Wolves' suffering their second defeat in four days.

In contrast, the result brought a happy end to the holiday weekend for the Tigers, who themselves suffered a 35-6 drubbing at the hands of Wakefield on Good Friday.

Cas have now also won three of their last four Super League matches.

Monday's contest brought a first start for Kevin Penny since Warrington's opening defeat of the season against St Helens in February - the winger therefore playing under new boss Tony Smith for the first time.

However, a thigh strain meant that Lee Briers, who also missed Friday's last-gasp 18-16 reverse at Salford, remained on the sidelines.

With Vinnie Anderson also missing, Matt King reverted to centre while Castleford were missing Dean Widders, who suffered a torn calf muscle in their home defeat by Wakefield, and Nathan Massey.

The home side initially threatened, with surging early runs from Paul Rauhihi causing Castleford problems.

Rauhihi was again involved in a move - inspired by a Ben Harrison burst - that should have given Warrington the lead. However, captain Adrian Morley could not take the prop's pass cleanly.

Defences on top

Both sides' defences had the better of an evenly-contested first half, with the Tigers finally breaking the deadlock after 33 minutes when Brett Ferres took Mike Wainwright's inside pass to go over in the corner - Kirk Dixon converting from the touchline.

Castleford's defence then held up King over the line, allowing them to hold a 6-0 lead at the break.

They then extended their lead 11 minutes after the restart when Brent Sherwin's long pass found Michael Wainwright, who shrugged off a weak Paul Johnson tackle to cross, with Dixon again kicking the extras.

Worse was to follow for Warrington as a hesitant Michael Monaghan failed to deal with Sherwin's kick, allowing Rangi Chase to win the race to the ball and make the score 18-0.

Wolves fans finally had something to cheer about when Chris Bridge forced his way over on the hour, with Chris Hicks converting.

However, that interlude provided only the merest respite as further Castleford tries in the last nine minutes from Michael Shenton and Chase heaped further misery upon them.