Craig Lingard hails progress for Castleford Tigers after thrilling Super League clash with Leigh Leopards

The two teams could not be separated at 28-28 following a frantic 10 minutes of golden-point extra time.

A try in the dying moments of normal time from Castleford winger Lewis Senior gave Rowan Milnes the opportunity to kick a conversion to level the scores which he took.

Adrian Lam’s men had the better opportunities to win it but could not apply the killer touch.

“If you asked me midway through the first half I’d say (it feels like) a point dropped,” said Lingard. “But if you asked me in the second, I’d say a point won.

“I thought we were lucky to be 10 points up in the first half because Leigh had dominated in attack and defence. I had to question the players’ physicality at half-time because Leigh were winning the battle.

“We have talked about developing and toughening our mentality of competing and we played well in spells but not for the full 80 minutes.

“Those periods of the game are getting bigger and the bad ones are getting smaller. But we are getting there – the last couple of games have given us some confidence for the coming weeks.

“I thought we could have manufactured better opportunities in extra time but Leigh did well with their defence and we forced them into some errors.”

Leigh dominated attacking possession in the early stages but were stunned by two early tries from Castleford in quick succession from Senior and Tex Hoy.

Matt Moyland converted his own try as Leigh hit back before, with three minutes of the half remaining, they took the lead for the first time through tries from Josh Charnley. Edwin Ipape.

Leigh scored their fourth try in the 52nd minute through Ricky Leutele who powered over for a converted try to make it 24-10.

But a try for Castleford centre Sam Wood kept Craig Lingard’s men in the game only for Charnley to score in the corner and set up Leigh for a certain win.

But Innes Senior produced a great finish to score in the corner and with Milnes adding the goal, Leigh’s lead was cut to just six points.

With two minutes left on the clock, Senior produced an acrobatic finish to score in the corner to make it 28-26. Milnes’ conversion off the touchline tying the game​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​.