Wigan Warriors v Castleford Tigers: Realistic Craig Lingard calls for competitive performance as he glances towards key period

The Tigers have only one win to show for their efforts in the opening seven rounds of Super League and face a daunting task at Wigan Warriors on Friday night.

Lingard is hopeful of bringing in reinforcements and welcoming players back from injury for next week's clash with basement side London.

Castleford then take on struggling Leigh Leopards and 11th-placed Hull either side of a home game against St Helens.

The injury-ravaged Tigers could only name a 19-man squad for the trip to Wigan in a repeat of last week but Lingard is optimistic about putting out a stronger team when London visit.

"We're looking at getting people back for that game," said Lingard, whose side are smarting from a 60-6 Challenge Cup defeat to the Warriors.

"In competitive sport, you never write a game off because you'll get what you deserve. We've got little targets we want to hit in every single game and for us it's to try close the gap that was there last week.

"We've lost a couple more players again which will make it difficult but after this weekend we've almost got a little mini-season where we play London, Leigh, St Helens and Hull. We need to get people in and back for those games.

"We need to be realistic about what's achievable for us this season and the games we want to seriously target. Those next four games for us are real key for our season."

Castleford had no answer to Wigan in the last eight of the cup, shipping 12 tries on a chastening afternoon at Wheldon Road.

The Super League rematch offers the Tigers an opportunity to restore some lost pride.

"We need to be competitive," said Lingard.

"I'm not saying competitive in terms of turning that 60-6 defeat into a victory; it's being competitive in how we play.

"We've spoken about the squad we've got and where we are in our journey. That's not helped with the number of senior players we've got out but we want individuals to be consistently competitive in everything they do, whether that's playing the ball, on a kick chase or shutting the gate from the inside. That's whether the scoreline is 0-0 or 60-6 like last week.

"I'm realistic with the squad we've got out there and what they could potentially give us – but I need to see them being competitive in every single effort during the game."

Joe Westerman and Luis Johnson sit out the round-eight clash through injury, while fellow forward Sylvester Namo received a five-match suspension in the aftermath of the Challenge Cup game.

Sam Hall and Liam Watts have returned to contention and there could be debuts for on-loan Hull KR winger Louis Senior and young hooker George Hill.

Lingard is conscious of overexposing youngsters during a challenging time for the club.

"We've got to make sure it's right for that individual," he said. "That's why we haven't brought academy guys into that squad.

"What I don't want to do is chuck a 17 or 18-year-old kid in against a team like Wigan at Wigan.

"It's easy to say that we might as well blood some young kids but you can do more harm than good by putting a young kid in that situation against world-class players.

"We saw what Wigan did to some of our senior guys last week so I don't want to put a 17-year-old kid in that situation and potentially hamper their development.”