Milner aims to banish heartache of Sinfield’s golden point

In 2011, they were just inches away from reaching Wembley after Rangi Chase’s drop-goal attempted went agonisingly wide of the posts in a fascinating semi-final at Doncaster.

The miss meant the tie went to extra time and luckless Castleford – they have not reached the final for more than 20 years – were eventually undone by Kevin Sinfield’s unerring accuracy.

Milner was just 19 then but, ahead of tonight’s fourth-round tie at the Super League champions, insisted: “Cas couldn’t have asked for a better tie. We love the big games and, personally, I remember well playing Leeds in that semi-final.

“It was probably the best game I’ve played in. The atmosphere was incredible.

“It does give me nightmares still a bit just to think it was only Sinfield’s penalty that knocked us out on golden point.

“But it’s still a special moment for me to think it could have been Cas at Wembley.

“That would have been great for these fans, but we’ll work towards it again, starting this Friday.

“If we can replicate that game and this time come out on top we’ll be going in the right direction.”

Castleford are already doing that, having crucially turned a corner by picking up their first win in eight games against Widnes Vikings last Saturday.

It came at the end of a tumultuous week when head coach Ian Millward and assistant Stuart Donlan had been sacked.

However, temporary chief Danny Orr came in and revitalised the squad in time for that vital contest.

Milner, whose try proved decisive as they came back from 26-16 down to win 28-26, said: “Danny put a lot of hard work in and I think we did it for him.

“We owed a lot of the Cas fans one and ourselves, too, as we’ve been putting in the performances but just messing up with little mistakes and it’s been costing us.

“But we dug in deep and, thankfully, got the two points.

“I put that down to Danny. He came in and got us back on board. He got the fighting spirit back in the boys and that’s what’s been needed.

“We’d been down in the dumps and he just gave us that confidence to do things.

“He sent us out to enjoy it. A lot of the boys hadn’t been enjoying their football, but he freshened it all up and you saw that.

“We didn’t concede any points in that second half against Widnes. When we come up against top teams, like Leeds, we have to be defending like that throughout the 80 minutes.

“We’ve taken a lot of confidence and we’re looking to kick-start our season now.

“Whatever happens, there’ll be 17 players out there willing to give it a good shot and that’s down to Danny’s influence.”