Super League: Castleford Tigers 8-10 Wigan Warriors

The win lifts Wigan into top spot at the expense of St Helens, who face London Broncos on Sunday, while Castleford slipped to their 10th league defeat of the season.

Shortly after breaking the deadlock with seven minutes left, Marshall touched down again for Wigan but was flagged for an initiation.

Hoy’s try, just past the half-hour mark, was against the run of play and came from deep in Castleford’s own half.

The defender picked up the ball and showed great speed to exploit a gap in the Wigan defence, tripping Bevan French along the way before crossing.

Castleford came out of the blocks after the break and went ahead thanks to Milnes’ penalty, but they were reduced to 12 men soon after.

Cain Robb was sent off for a high tackle on Wigan’s Abbas Miski but Cas extended their lead despite being outnumbered with Milnes on target from long range.

The lead didn’t last long, though, as Jake Wardle’s last-ditch offload was deflected by Milnes into the path of Marshall, who reacted quickly to slot home.

Smith missed the conversion attempt with the game still poised at 8-8 but hit the target with a penalty moments later to put Wigan ahead.

It proved decisive and despite Castleford’s best efforts in the latter stages, they could not breach the Wigan backline to record what would have been a well-deserved win.

Castleford head coach Craig Lingard:

“(I’m) disappointed we didn’t win, but very proud of our efforts.

“One thing we talked about this week – we did our mid-season review – was to try and be a team that doesn’t disappear.

“Too many times this season it’s been too easy to get to the top. When it got into a set-for-set arm wrestle, we were always the ones to fire first.

“So from that point of view I’m really pleased and proud of the boys, but we can’t help but think it’s a missed opportunity to get two points on the board.”

Wigan head coach Matt Peet:

“Castleford played really well. They were motivated, full of energy. You could see that they had freshened up last week, trained hard and were ready.

“I thought they gave us a heck of a game. I don’t think last week came into it at all. We were ready and ready to go.

“We haven’t trained much this week for obvious reasons. We probably had 40 minutes on the court this week, but we train all year together.

“The truth is, we got to a tough spot on a tough night and won.”

Castleford: Hoy; Qareqare, Hall, Wood, I Senior; Milnes, Miller; Griffin, Horne, Watts, Mellor, El-Zakhem, Hill.

Exchanges: Putt, Namo, Robb, English.

Wigan: French; Miski, Eckersley, Wardle, Marshall; Hampshire, Smith; Cooper, O’Neill, Thompson, Walters, Farrell, Ellis.

Exchanges: Byrne, Mago, Leeming, Hill.