Castleford Tigers boss hails effort in Wigan loss but admits team is 'down to the proper bare bones'

The Warriors thrashed the Tigers 60-6 in the Challenge Cup last weekend and there were fears of another one-sided encounter.

Instead, Castleford refused to make it easy work for their hosts, with Wigan only leading by four points at the break before pulling away in the second half.

Lingard said: “We knew the level of the task coming over here after the performance and defeat five days ago. We lost Joe Westerman and Alex Mellor from that team as well. We didn’t name the team until last night and had a couple of late changes.

“We are down to the proper bare bones. We spoke all week and pre-game about being competitive. Competing doesn’t always mean that you win every game.

“We wanted some individuals to have a competitive edge about them, competing to play the ball quick, competing to get off your line and competing with kick pressures. If everyone does that then collectively the performances are going to be better.

“I thought we showed that – certainly in the first half – even up to the end we scored the last try. It might not seem a lot, but after last week we could have easily rolled over.”

Castleford, who sit third-bottom in the Super League table, welcome London Broncos to the Mend-A-Hose Jungle on Friday.

With London sitting firmly at the bottom of the standings, it promises to be a huge encounter in the battle to avoid relegation.