The 22-0 home defeat to the Wigan Warriors on Monday cost Tigers a chance to move up to fourth in the Betfred Super League.
But with fifth-placed Leeds Rhinos and Hull and Hull KR – who are in seventh and eighth – Castleford also lost sixth and final play-offs.
After today’s Magic Weekend meeting with the Salford Red Devils in Newcastle, Cas visits Hull KR next Friday and ends his regular season the following weekend against third placed visitor Warrington Wolves.
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Niall Evalds scores in the Wembley defeat of the Tigers against St. Helens. Image by Bruce Rollinson.
The race for the last two play-off places is on a knife edge and Evalds admitted today that it is “huge” for Tigers.
“Our result on Monday made us even bigger,” said the former Salford star.
“Our goal is to just take care of ourselves and just win every game.
“Now there are three left and a win this week keeps us on track and in this race.
Paul McShane could return for Tigers after injury. Image by Paul Currie / SWpix.com.
Paul McShane could return for Tigers after injury. Image by Paul Currie / SWpix.com.“It’s really tight and there are teams that compete with us, but we have to take care of ourselves.”
That means getting a huge improvement in performance five days ago, Evalds admitted.
Thinking about this defeat, he accepted: “We were far away. The performance just wasn’t good enough. We saw parts of it and this is not a Cas performance.
“We were in good shape so it was disappointing to throw that away, but there is no better place than Magic Weekend to turn things around. We are looking for a good performance. “
Danny Richardson will miss Salford due to a concussion. Image by Jonathan Gawthorpe.
Danny Richardson will miss Salford due to a concussion. Image by Jonathan Gawthorpe.
The Tigers won an away league game against Salford in late April and defeated them – in extra time for gold points – in a Challenge Cup quarter-finals the following week.
Castleford put on a understaffed team in a 70:18 home defeat two months ago and Evalds insisted, “We are always confident no matter who we play against.
“We know when we’re in our game, we take care of all the little one percent and all the hard-working details, we can beat anyone on our day.
“We really have to hit it.”
The Red Devils are second from the bottom of the table but their big home win over Hull on Monday did the Tigers a favor and Evalds expects tonight’s game to be tough.
“They are a quality team and they have some really good players,” he said.
“The performance you have just shown against Hull shows what you can do when you are on the field and we are not going to underestimate anyone. We are ready for the best Salford. ”
Paul McShane could return today after missing the Wigan loss due to injury and Jacques O’Neill, James Clare and Lewis Bienek were all drafted into the squad.
However, Danny Richardson (concussion), Liam Watts (suspended) and Greg Eden (ruptured jaw tendon) are all out.
Castleford Tigers: by Evalds, Olpherts, Mata’utia, Shenton, McShane, Millington, Holmes, Blair, Milner, Massey, Griffin, Foster, O’Neill, Hepi, Clare, Sene-Lefao, Smith, Matagi, Turner, Bienek, O’Brien.
Salford Red Devils: from Escare, Sio, Inu, Burgess, Lolohea, Brown, Ackers, Lannon, Addy, Roberts, Burke, Johnson, Atkin, Livett, Williams, Sarginson, Costello, Luckley, Hingano, Roebuck, Robson.
Referee: Chris Kendall (Huddersfield).
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