Salford City Reds 34 Castleford Tigers 30: Frustration for Orr after Tigers come off second-best at Salford

The visitors led 30-28 until Ryan McGoldrick intercepted a Rangi Chase pass nine minutes from time to seal a thrilling win with Mark Sneyd booting his fifth conversion.

The Reds, who had lost their last eight matches against Castleford, welcomed back McGoldrick against his old club after a two-month absence but Lee Gaskell and Lee Jewitt were still sidelined.

Noble, who has taken over from sacked Phil Veivers, included a clutch of players who were rested for the 82-6 Tetley’s Challenge Cup romp at Gloucestershire All Golds.

For the Tigers, Kirk Dixon was the only change from the side beaten at Leeds in the Challenge Cup, with James Clare missing out.

The Tigers went ahead after four minutes with Nathan Massey taking Chase’s pass to charge over.

But McGoldrick marked his return by slipping a pass to Matty Ashurst who went over after 14 minutes with Sneyd tagging on the conversion to fire his side ahead 6-4.

Salford lost leading try scorer Ashley Gibson midway through the first half with a leg injury and Tigers immediately regained the lead.

Chase threw out a long pass to Justin Carney, who ducked inside Danny Williams to make it 8-6.

Chase was the instigator of the Tigers third try by cutting inside Andrew Dixon for Jordan Tansey to set up Adam Milner with Jamie Ellis landing his first conversion at the third attempt.

Salford hit back with Williams atoning for his earlier error by taking Gleeson’s pass to go over in the corner and reduce the arrears to 14-10.

But the Reds went back ahead seven minutes before the break with kicks by Liam Foran and Theo Fages causing panic in the visiting defence and Dixon touched down with Sneyd converting.

Chase intercepted a Fages pass but, fortunately for Salford, lacked the pace to race 75 metres to the Reds line and Castleford trailed 16-14 at the break.

Salford made the perfect start to the second half with Vic Mauro taking Jordan James’ pass to score under the posts.

But Castleford replied immediately with Chase putting Oliver Holmes over to cut the deficit to 22-20 before Fages notched the Reds’ fifth try in the corner and Sneyd booted the touchline conversion.

Michael Shenton’s powerful run allowed Chase to kick through for Ellis to make it 28-26 after 57 minutes.

Jordan Tansey was placed on report for a high tackle on Danny Williams before Castleford regained the lead with Chase again involved to put Jordan Thompson over in the corner.

Then Chase made his first mistake of the night and it proved to be a costly one with his pass intercepted by ex team-mate McGoldrick, who darted 50 metres with Sneyd adding the conversion to restore the Reds lead at 34-30 nine minutes from time.

Castleford piled on the pressure but the Reds held out.

Afterwards, Noble was delighted to win a “basketball-style game” in a dream start to his Salfrod tenure.

“We finished on the right side of a basketball-style game and it was thrilling and exciting.

“We had to show plenty of character to defend like we did in the last five minutes.

“We did a lot of good things going forward and I know there is work to do after looking at the league ladder.

“But it can be cured in time and we need to start raising the bar.

“At times we looked good with the ball.”

Cas looked to be heading for only their second win in 11 league games when they led 30-28, but when Chase, who played a key role in all six Cas tries, threw out a pass that was intercepted by McGoldrick, the points were staying in Salford.

Noble said of the game’s decisive moment: “We know how good Rangi is and he gave an expert lesson out there. But Goldy picked that pass sweet.”

Castleford’s caretaker boss Danny Orr came down hard on his players despite having seen them run Salford close for much of the contest.

“We didn’t deserve to win and to concede 34 points was disappointing,” he said.

“We were outmuscled and our kicking game was terrible in the first half.”

Orr refused to blame Chase for his match-deciding error, saying: “Rangi is a world-class player as we could see from the things he did out there tonight.

“You can only admire him and I’m not going to tell him to change his game.

“He knows that pass probably wasn’t on but we did not help ourselves and got in an arm wrestle.

“We did not perform and self-destructed.”

Salford City Reds: Sneyd, Broughton, Gibson, Gleeson, D. Williams, Fages, McGoldrick, Griffin, Godwin, Emmitt, Ashurst, Dixon, Wild. Substitutes: Foran, Mauro, James, A. Walne.

Castleford Tigers: Tansey, Carney, Shenton, Thompson, Dixon, Chase, Ellis, Mason, Milner, Huby, Hauraki, Holmes, Massey. Substitutes: Walker, Clark, Gilmour, Boyle.

Referee: T Alibert (RFL).