WATCH: Castleford Tigers homing in on a '˜reaction' after manner of Wigan loss, warns pack man Oli Holmes

OLI HOLMES admits Castleford Tigers need a 'reaction' when Wakefield Trinity visit them on Friday night.
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Castleford lost for only the third time this season when they fell 28-12 at second-placed Wigan Warriors last Friday.

Daryl Powell’s side won 11-6 at Trinity over Easter in miserable conditions and second-row Holmes, who hails from Wakefield amateur club Normanton Knights, admitted: “It doesn’t feel that long since we played them over at their place.

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“It’s come around quickly. They’ll be looking for a bit of revenge and it’s always a tasty affair.

Castleford Tigers forward Oliver Holmes. PIC: James HardistyCastleford Tigers forward Oliver Holmes. PIC: James Hardisty
Castleford Tigers forward Oliver Holmes. PIC: James Hardisty

“But we’re back at home and we’ve been good at bouncing back after previous defeats; we’ve managed to get a reaction. That’s what we’re looking for again.”

At Wigan, Castleford recovered from 14-2 down to get to 14-12 at half-time after tries from Holmes and debutant Garry Lo.

However, Oilver Gildart scored within 72 seconds of the restart for Warriors who never looked back and kept the visitors pointless for the entire second period.

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Holmes, 25, conceded: “Half-time probably came at a bad time for us.

Castleford Tigers forward Oliver Holmes. PIC: James HardistyCastleford Tigers forward Oliver Holmes. PIC: James Hardisty
Castleford Tigers forward Oliver Holmes. PIC: James Hardisty

“We’d just sort of got on the front foot, started to get some momentum in our game, got a couple of tries and got ourselves back in it.

“Half-time probably stopped that momentum as we came out for the second period and that breakaway try in the first set killed us a little.

“We’ll have to have a look at it. Credit to Wigan. They controlled the ball a lot better than us and their discipline was a lot better than ours.

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“We’ve not carried on in the second half what we’d started to build in the first so it’s a mentality thing.

“We didn’t build enough pressure; too many errors, too many bad penalties in crucial times of the game and it killed us.

“If you invite a team like Wigan into your own half then bad things are going to happen.”

On his try – a fourth of the campaign already – Holmes added: “It’s always nice to get over and it was a nice little ball from Galey but I’d swap that for a win.”