A positive week ended in positive fashion for Castleford Tigers as they beat Hull 30-22 and head coach Craig Lingard hopes fans, players and staff have been able to savour some success before moving on to the next challenge.
In the build-up to their latest Super League match the Tigers announced that they had tied up deals for Innes and Louis Senior while experienced back-rower Alex Mellor and promising hooker Cain Robb both put pen to paper on two-year extensions to their contracts.
The news came on the back of tying down exciting winger Jason Qareqare and young forwards Sam Hall and George Hill as planning is beginning to take shape for the next few years at the Mend-A-Hose Jungle.
Results have been up and down in recent weeks with two wins and a draw in the last four games, but a real hammering by St Helens in the middle of it, but there are signs of overall progress that are pleasing Tigers boss Lingard.
He said: “We’ve got to make sure we don’t get carried away because it’s one victory, but we moan and sulk when we lose so let’s enjoy a win.
“After the second half performance against Saints where we were pretty abysmal, it’s good to bounce back and win a game, albeit we weren’t great all the way through the game.
“That’s where we are as a team. We’re not the finished article by any stretch of the imagination so we’re going to have good periods and bad periods in games.
“It’s about coming through the other side which I thought we did.
“We’re still learning. We seem to be having two weeks when we’re really good and two when we’re not, but we’re taking these little steps forward and next week at Leeds is another of those tests for us.”
Lingard is likely to be without half-back Jacob Miller again for the trip to Headingley on Saturday after the foot injury he picked up against St Helens and winger Louis Senior is out for three months.
But Rowan Milnes and Paul McShane did a great job in the halves and the Tigers boss was pleased to have powerhouse forward Sylvester Namo available again for the Hull game.
He explained: “Sylvester was good and that’s what we are looking for. We are not expecting him to do 25 minutes stints.
“He came over on rehab from an ACL and he has had five games out with suspension.
“We wanted to give him a blowout at the end of the first-half and early in the second half, but it seemed a pointless interchange bringing him on before half-time because we had just scored.
“I thought the two stints he had was impactful.”
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