Super League: Castleford Tigers 29-12 Hull FC - Cas close in on survival

Jason Qareqare led the charge for Castleford in the first half

Castleford took a giant stride towards Super League survival with a thumping win against Hull FC at Wheldon Road.

There was a Jason Qareqare double and Greg Eden try before the break, as Alex Foster and Jordan Turner later scored.

The visitors have beaten Tigers three times this season but, despite Adam Swift's double - his ninth scoring game in a row - they could not make it four.

With two games left Tigers are now four points ahead of rock-bottom Wakefield, who were beaten by leaders Catalans.

Castleford also have a points difference that is 31 better than Trinity's.

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Qareqare jinked his way past full-back Davy Litten to open the scoring inside five minutes and, on his 300th career appearance, Gareth Widdop slotted the extras, only for Swift to hit back on 11 minutes, darting into the corner after Litten's pass to score in his fourth straight game against Castleford.

Darnell McIntosh's boot made it 6-6 but Qareqare intercepted a floated pass and sprinted from his own 10 metre line to dot down under the posts, with Widdop's kick making it 12-6.

Eden extended the Cas lead just after the half-hour mark when he was first to react to Blake Austin's grubber, with Widdop adding the conversion.

McIntosh saw a try ruled out for a forward pass before the break and Swift was denied a second after the turnaround, first by a foot in touch and then being held up.

Litten was sin-binned for a high tackle on Qareqare just before the hour, and though Widdop pulled the subsequent penalty wide, Austin notched a drop-goal 14 minutes from time and Foster raced through to ground a kick to make it 23-6.

Swift dummied his way over the line to reduce the arrears on 73 minutes, with McIntosh adding the extras, but there was still time for Turner to touch down a converted try as Hull suffered a fourth straight defeat.

Nathan Massey came off the bench to make his 300th Tigers appearance, while Alex Mellor was making career appearance number 200.

Castleford head coach Danny Ward told BBC Radio Leeds:"It's a pretty good feeling, to get the win. We knew going into it it was a big game, and we wanted the performance after our last home game."It was a bit scrappy and we made it a little bit tense towards the end. It's still job not done but it's another step closer."We made so many errors but the attitude to defend those errors was magnificent. There were some big defensive efforts out there against some quality players."Someone told me towards the end but we can't keep worrying about Wakefield's results."

Hull FC coach Tony Smith told BBC Radio Humberside:"One team looked like they were fighting for their lives and the other was… well, we weren't good enough."We went about the game in the wrong manner. We got dragged into their desperation - their emotion tipped over into us. We were panicking and I didn't think we needed to be."We haven't had a win for a few weeks. I think we wanted to come here and get back on the road but we tried a bit too hard."Credit Cas, I haven't seen them defend their tryline like that for quite some time. They were desperate."

Castleford: Widdop, Qaraqare, Turner, Broadbent, Wallis, Eden, Austin, Watts, Johnstone, Mustapha, Mellor, Edwards, Westerman.

Interchanges: Griffin, Massey, Robb, Foster.

Hull FC: Litten, Swift, Scott, Tuimavave, McIntosh, Lovodua, Hoy, Fash, Houghton, Taylor, Lane, Savelio, Cator.

Interchanges: Brown, Dwyer, Satae, Staveley.

Referee: Ben Thaler.

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