Derby tie gives Tigers chance of swift Cup tonic

BRETT FERRES believes the Carnegie Challenge Cup tie with Wakefield Trinity Wildcats will give Castleford Tigers a “perfect” opportunity to get over their horrendous loss at Warrington.

The England Elite squad back-row was part of the embarrassed side ruined 62-0 on Friday night as their winless run in Super League stretched to five games.

Despite leading the competition last month, the West Yorkshire club’s form has suffered dismally ever since. However, Ferres feels Saturday’s televised fifth round game at his former club could be the perfect tonic.

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“It’s a big, local derby in the Challenge Cup which is something we want to have a real crack at this year,” he told the Yorkshire Post.

“I think we can go all the way to Wembley and it’d be great for our fans if we could do that.

“Playing Wakefield adds a bit more spice to it all. It was only a couple of weeks ago we lost to them in a game we know we should have won. That started this run and we’ve not really recovered since but this would be the absolutely perfect time to start putting things right.

“We know we need to do that.”

Dismayed coach Terry Matterson had his players back in on Saturday morning to assess the damage created by Warrington’s 11-try destruction.

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Ferres admitted: “We needed to try and find some answers, review it all and I think we have.

“It was a shocking performance – there was really no positives to take out of it – but we’ve found out what went wrong, things we need to.

“It was a lot down to attitude; when things don’t go our way we need to rectify them straight away rather than dwelling. We’ve got to knuckle down now and work hard this week ready for Wakefield.

“Most of this season we’ve been going well and we’re not a poor team; we’ve not turned into a bad side over night.”

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Castleford will check this morning on the fitness of prop Paul Jackson and second-row Martin Aspinwall who both suffered injuries in the warm-up, prompting problems before Matterson’s side even kicked off.

“The losing part doesn’t bother me because you are not going to win every game, but it’s how you lose and I’m embarrassed and so are the players,” Castleford coach Terry Matterson said.

“We are in a really bad place at the moment but we have been here before. I have been at the club for five years and have had some tough days so I’m not totally downhearted.”