Castleford Tigers claim 22-20 Super League win at Salford

Ashley Gibson: Bagged a brace against his former club

Castleford Tigers withstood a late Salford fightback to claim a 22-20 Super League victory at the AJ Bell Stadium.

Teenager Ash Robson enjoyed a debut to remember by scoring Castleford's crucial fourth try with 16 minutes remaining, while former Salford centre Ashley Gibson scored twice against his old club.

The depleted Red Devils had led 10-0 and were still in contention at 16-10 when Robson went over for the all-important score.

The odds were stacked against Salford from the start after they were forced to go into the game without four players through suspension and another eight because of injury.

In addition, Locke and scrum-half Theo Fages both needed running repairs in a first half that saw hooker Liam Hood and prop Adrian Morley go off with arm and ankle injuries.

However, Salford overcome that adversity to outplay their visitors for long periods, and they were good value for their early 10-0 lead, although both tries owed much to defensive errors by Tigers full-back Jordan Tansey.

Tansey's knock-on inside his own 10-metre area after only four minutes created the position for Fages to open the scoring, while Kevin Locke collected a lucky rebound off the full-back to touch down for Salford's second try midway through the first half.

Locke converted his own try but the visitors tightened their defence and gradually clawed their way back into the contest.

Gibson took hooker Adam Milner's neat pass to score his first try on 25 minutes and the returning Luke Gale added the goal to cut the gap to just four points.

Salford winger Greg Johnson saved a certain try by holding up Castleford captain Michael Shenton over the line and Red Devils prop Scott Taylor also got over the line at the other end without being able to ground the ball.

Gibson gathered Shenton's clever crossfield kick to grab his second try 30 seconds before the break to tie the scores and the Tigers hit the front for the first time six minutes into the second half.

Gale got loose forward Nathan Massey charging onto his inside pass and he slipped the attempted tackle of Lama Tasi to score his side's third try.

Salford continued to play with spirit but that looked to have been extinguished when Robson followed up a speculative kick from stand-off Ben Roberts to score the Tigers' fourth try on 63 minutes, with Gale's third goal extending their lead to 22-10.

But Oliver Gildart raced clear to get Locke over for his second try just three minutes later and Taylor went over two minutes from the end for the home side's fourth try.

Johnson converted the try to cut the deficit to just two points but there was no time to complete the late comeback.