Final fixture of the season defeat for Reserves

Castleford Tigers’ Reserves squad were beaten by 54 points to 28 by Wakefield Trinity at The Be Well Support Stadium on Saturday.

Scott Murrell’s pack were aiming to replicate their first team counterparts from the day before by claiming a victory over Trin, however, it was the hosts who struck first early on.

Four minutes into the contest an early penalty for the home side put them within range and it was Franco who scored the opener on the left.

Just ten minutes later Wakefield extended their advantage. An attempted interception was knocked on by Cas and from the scrum Trinity took full advantage as Salabio used his strength to barge over from close range.

The Tigers found a response on 17 minutes. Castleford shifted the play to the left and Ransome spotted a gap in the line to race over. Hookem knocked over the conversion to narrow the scores to 10-6.

Halfway through the first 40, the Fords were in front. Lovely hands from the Tigers freed Coggle on the right wing for him to dive in by the corner post. Hookem made no mistake from the touchline to nudge Cas ahead by two points.

Unfortunately, the visitors' lead didn’t last long as Kershaw capitalised on an earlier Qareqare handling error to do down out wide.

Trinity added two more late on in the half. Croft touched down before Schofield scored after Eseh made a good break up the field for the scoreboard to read 24-14 at the half-time hooter.

Just like in the first half, Wakefield scored within minutes of kick-off. A Castleford knock on awarded the hosts the attacking position and Abraham stretched out for the half-back to smuggle the ball over.

Wakefield went back-to-back five minutes later through Eseh who took it on himself to take on the Cas defence and the prop powered over to reach for the line and ground.

The Fords got a foothold in the second 40 with ten minutes played. Hookem pounced on a loose offload which put Cas in prime position and an accurate low kick through was met by Martin.

Martin’s impact on the game was growing with the second rower making a break which unfortunately ended in the ball being knocked on and Wakefield immediately went on the attack. They switched the play out to Kershaw who claimed his brace.

The winger then secured his hat-trick before Windrow was found by Poching with a short ball 15 metres out for the second row to run in to put Wakefield 48-18 up.

With ten minutes to go, Martin had a second. A penalty provided the Fords good field position and the second rower smashed through a couple of tackles to add his second of the game.

It only took him three minutes to round off his hat-trick after superb work from Qareqare and Sarbah kept the ball alive on the last tackle and Sarbah’s kick forward was placed perfectly for Martin to pounce on.

Wakefield finished the scoring with a minute to go courtesy of a fortunate bounce off the post after a low kick which landed back in Trinity hands to claim another four-pointer for the scores to read 54-28 at full-time.