Castleford Tigers 28 Hull FC 32 - Jake Connor’s late try thwarts Castleford Tigers’ stirring comeback at the death

Having trailed by 10 points, Tigers seemed to have won the game through tries on 71 and 75 minutes by Mike McMeeken and Michael Shenton, both of which Gareth O’Brien converted.

But Hull snatched the ball back from the restart following Shenton’s touchdown and in the resulting set Jake Connor got on the end of Marc Sneyd’s smart kick to grab a 32-28 win the visitors didn’t really deserve.

The 10 tries were shared and Castleford, without pack leaders Liam Watts and Jesse Sene-Lefao, as well as - again - both their first-choice halves, showed great spirit in the second period after dominating most of the first.

Tigers boss Daryl Powell was clearly unhappy with a number of calls from referee Tom Grant and his assistants, particularly to award Jordan Johnstone a try in the first half, a penalty against Nathan Massey soon afterwards and another which led to Matt Cook - who had just come on for his first appearance of the season - being sin-binned just before the break.

Johnstone’s touchdown, which levelled the scores 10 minutes before half-time, was a candidate for strangest of the season.

A late tackle by Tigers’ George Griffin on Joe Cator began a skirmish which drew in players from both sides.

Hull played on and with most of Tigers’ right-side otherwise engaged, created a big gap which Johnstone - who had peeled off the punch-up when he saw the opening develop - ran through to touchdown.

Johnstone was the victim of a - marginally at worst - late tackle by Massey which allowed Sneyd to kick Hull into a 14-12 interval lead.

Cas had done well to recover from Hull’s opening try after just four minutes, through Cameron Scott and the first of Sneyd’s six goals.

Two tries in five minutes soon afterwards edged Tigers ahead.

First, O’Brien split the defence and McMeeken was in support to cross, then Greg Eden dashed over from James Clare’s pass.

O’Brien converted both and Castleford were denied when Junior Moors was ruled to have failed to ground the ball over Hull’s line and missed a chance through a Chayse Blair knock-on after a fantastic catch by ex-Hull winger Jack Sanderson from McShane’s kick.

Five minutes into the second period Tevita Satae smashed his way over from close range, seconds after Johnstone was ruled to have been held up.

Cas - on the end of wrong end of eight successive penalties, including a double-movement which led to a Sanderson touchdown being ruled out - were hanging on, but got back into the game when Grant Millington dummied over from McShane’s pass on 54 minutes.

The conversion was missed and Hull made it 26-16 with 19 minutes left through a try on debut by Ben McNamara, son of Catalans Dragons coach Steve McNamara, off Connor’s break.

The restart didn’t go 10 metres, but Sneyd couldn’t land the resulting penalty and Cas were back within four with nine minutes left as McMeeken finished strongly from McShane’s pass.

Then some superb work by Moors and Millington created some space, McShane kicked through and Michael Shenton did brilliantly to touch down.

It seemed Tigers were heading for their second win since lockdown ended, but it wasn’t to be.

Castleford Tigers: Clare, Sanderson, Blair, Shenton, Eden, McShane, O’Brien, Griffin, Milner, Hepi, Moors, McMeeken, Millington. Subs Massey, O’Neill, Cook, Peachey.

Hull: Buchanan, Faraimo, Fonua, Tuimavave, Scott, Connor, Sneyd, Taylor, Johnstone, Bowden, Lane, Savelio, Cator. Subs Satae, Sao, Fash, McNamara.

Referee: Tom Grant (Leeds).

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Laura Collins