A week after a defeat at Leeds condemned them to the wooden spoon, Castleford ran a Warrington team fighting for fourth place ragged in a match which was even more one-sided than the final scoreline suggests.

Ten tries, including a hat-trick for Michael Wainwright, were just reward for the enterprise of the home side who managed just two conversions, one each for Kirk Dixon and Craig Huby.

Castleford outscored Warrington by five tries to two in both halves and the fear that they might pay a heavy price for their lacklustre efforts with the boot only disappeared on the hour after the strong-running Ned Catic had powered in for their eighth try.

"The stats show that we're the sixth or seventh in the try-scoring charts and while our defence has been an issue our goalkicking hasn't been great all year either," said Castleford coach Terry Matterson.

"It certainly kept Warrington in the game tonight and the scoreline didn't do us any justice.

"When we controlled the ball we dominated large parts of the game and I'm pleased for the guys. We spoke beforehand about having more to play for than league position such as playing for pride and their team-mates and they responded well tonight."

The home side were indebted to the creative influence of stand-off Ryan McGoldrick and Luke Dorn, the Australian full-back who scored one try and had a hand in three others during an impressive opening 40 minutes.

The Wolves had an early scare when Castleford captain Awen Guttenbeil darted through a static defence to collect a deft kick by McGoldrick and 'score' only for the video referee to deem him offside.

Warrington's relief proved short-lived, however, for within 90 seconds the Tigers had the lead from an opportune score by Dorn, who held off flying wingers Chris Riley and Taylor Welch on a scintillating 90-metre run after intercepting a hopeful pass by Lee Briers.

The stand-off quickly made amends by finishing off an incisive move involving Jon Clarke and Ben Westwood to punish some sloppy defence for Hicks to edge Warrington ahead with his first kick.

Castleford would not be denied and when Dorn hoisted a high, hanging kick Guttenbeil surged through to distract Hicks and the ball ran loose for Michael Shenton to regather and fire a long pass out to the left which enabled Michael Wainwright to score.

Again the angle proved beyond Dixon who did find the target following a 19th-minute try from Stuart Donlan, who put himself on the end of a dazzling handling move involving McGoldrick, Craig Huby and Shenton.

Fourth official Ashley Klein was again called on to adjudicate when a lobbed kick by Briers was knocked down towards Riley, who was given the benefit of the doubt surrounding how much control he had over the ball in the act of scoring.

The best tackle of the game then set up a second try for Wainwright with the winger squeezing over on the left after Huby had dislodged the ball from the grasp of Martin Gleeson with a bludgeoning challenge.

Donlan then grabbed his second, again following a long deliberation by the video referee who awarded the try to the full-back after Shenton had reached the line and rolled the ball behind him.

Warrington narrowed the gap with a try by Matt Blythe soon after the restart, but Castleford hit back with two tries by Richard Owen, both from sweet passes from his centre Shenton who did his own claims for England selection for the World Cup the power of good.

"I thought Michael did a good job on Martin Gleeson tonight and he did okay against Keith Senior last week," said Matterson. "He can also play wing and as there's a real dearth of top quality English three-quarters I'd like to think he's in discussions for the World Cup trip."

Owen's second try came while Warrington were reduced to 12 men with Briers in the sin-bin for a late tackle and the half-back was still in the dugout when Catic powered over Riley for his decisive try.

Riley dusted himself down to score a second try, but Castleford finished with a flourish, Dixon scooting through from a deft flick by Huby before Wainwright completed his hat-trick, the scoring and the Tigers' first Super League double of the season.

Warrington coach James Lowes, whose side could now finish sixth if Wigan and Bradford win their remaining fixtures and they fail to beat Huddersfield in two weeks, said Castleford were full value for the victory.

"We got what we deserved, we were poor across the board," said Lowes. "Castleford ran harder than us, tackled harder than we did and deserved to win by a bigger margin than they did."


Castleford Tigers: Donlan; Owen, Shenton, Dixon, Wainwright; McGoldrick, Dorn; Sargent, Henderson, Korkidas, Guttenbeil, Catic, Lupton. Substitutes: Leafa, Higgins, Huby, Boyle.

Warrington Wolves: Hicks; Riley, Gleeson, King, Welch; Briers, Monaghan; Morley, Clarke, Parker, Mitchell, Westwood, Grix. Substitutes: Blythe, Bracek, Cooper, Wood.

Referee: I Smith (Oldham).