Friday 11 July 2014 23:19, UK
Castleford coach Daryl Powell believes his side need to improve ahead of next Thursday's derby at Leeds despite scoring eight tries to beat Huddersfield.
Scrum-half Liam Finn justified his recall to the side with two tries in the Tigers' 44-30 victory over last year’s league leaders but Powell was still struggling to find some positives from the overall performance.
"It was a game we never really got to grips with," Powell said. "Just after half-time there were some real good signs but both teams didn't really play at the level we would expect and, as a result, it was a bit of a scrappy game.
"We scored forty-odd points but there are some things we need to tidy up quickly. We're trying to get in a groove but we're struggling a bit."
Finn, dropped for Castleford's previous game at Widnes, produced a man-of-the-match performance on his return to the side and his old half-back partner Marc Sneyd caught the eye as a makeshift full-back as Powell's changes did the trick.
"Marc has played there before and I thought he handled it well," Powell said. "Luke Dorn has been a little bit off his game and it gives us another option.
"Liam Finn's done a pretty good job after a week out. He did some smart things, although the game management from both halves could have been better."
Wingers Kirk Dixon and Justin Carney also scored tries, along with forwards Oliver Holmes, Adam Milner, Frankie Mariano and Grant Millington while skipper Michael Shenton caught the eye by winning his centre duel with England international Leroy Cudjoe.
"We decided not to use him in the first half," bemoaned Powell. "When you get the ball to him, he's pretty dangerous.
"He's played over the top of an international quality centre there and he's done that twice this year."
Huddersfield sorely missed injured skipper Danny Brough but makeshift hooker Chris Bailey scored two of their five tries and coach Paul Anderson saw an improvement on his side's 36-10 home defeat by Salford.
"My emotions are a mixture of frustration, disappointment and anger," Anderson said.
"We failed to control anything and, when we looked like we were doing as we planned, we looked dangerous.
"It's been the story of our year. Offensively we've got to stick to our plans and defensively we've got to be better. There were too many soft tries and some poor decisions being made.
"There were periods where we had Cas rocking, we just didn't have enough possession near their line. It feels like a different loss to last week. There is still anger but we looked like a physical rugby league team."
