Castleford Tigers: Stats are not stacking up for frustrated coach Powell
COACH DARYL Powell admits he is 'frustrated' by Castleford Tigers' poor run.
Four successive defeats have left Tigers out of the Ladbrokes Challenge Cup and nine points adrift of First Utility Super League’s all-important top-four.
Powell reckons a massive injury list has contributed to recent results, but he feels the players on duty are capable of doing better.
“We have been losing close games,” Powell reflected.
“The Opta stats have been saying we’ve been the best team, but the scoreboard doesn’t say that.
“It has been really frustrating.
“We haven’t been far away with a team that has been shorn of a lot of quality players, but we have got to win games, it is as simple as that.
“I felt we should have won the game [at Salford] last week, we should have beaten Hull the other week and we weren’t far away against Wigan at home.
“There’s loads of things we need to improve and I don’t think we are playing right on top of our game, but we have just got to find a way of being a bit more durable.”
Tigers will bid to end a run of five successive home league defeats when they face Catalans Dragons on Sunday.
Powell described that sequence as “painful” and he added: “There’s no excuses for that, regardless of personnel.
“We have lost some tight ones, but it is really frustrating.
“We have got to battle through this, get into the Super-8s and see what we can do in there.”
Former Man of Steel Rangi Chase could make his Tigers comeback on Sunday, but Cas will be without ankle injury victims Jake Webster and Michael McMeeken and Joel Monaghan (dislocated shoulder) due to injuries suffered against Salford.
“It has been tough all year, the amount of injuries we have got has been unparallelled,” Powell said.
“I think we have 12 blokes sat on their backside at the moment and a lot of them are key players.
“I did think at some point the injury situation would have abated, but it never has.
“It has got worse and I have never experienced anything like it as a coach, but we have still got a really good side out on the park and we have got to find a way to win some games.”