Salford Red Devils 30 Castleford Tigers 37: Danny Richardson and Paul McShane get Castleford home

They had lost all three games since returning from lockdown last month and looked destined for another when trailing 18-0 against Salford Red Devils after just 11 woeful minutes.

However, with hooker Paul McShane at his wonderful best, they managed to overhaul that deficit with four tries to take a 24-18 lead before the half-hour.

It was never going to be simple from thereon in, though, during a hard-fought, dramatic contest and, indeed, it needed Danny Richardson’s 64th minute drop goal to put them 31-30 ahead.

McShane’s cleverness with the boot to force a drop-out saw Grant Millington latch onto Richardson’s grubber and ease nerves in the 71st minute but they still needed Liam Watts’ timely tackle to deny Kevin Brown late on as Salford refused to go away in a thrilling game.

Brown had kicked things off with the opening try of the night when Salford - who denied Castleford a place at Old Trafford the last time they met last year - got off to that flying start.

He intercepted George Griffin’s wayward pass and, even approaching his 36th birthday next month, the former England stand-off had no trouble racing in the 40m.

There was only three minutes on the clock but, by the time it had reached 11, dozing Castleford were already 18-0 down.

Their body language already looked poor when heads bowed after Niall Evalds - who Tigers announced at the weekend would be joining them in 2021 - sliced through some meek tackles.

Their goalline defence was worse still when Joey Lussick bundled over, Krisnan Inu's third conversion placing Salford firmly in the ascendancy.

Fortunately, for Powell, his side quickly got some semblance of a foothold in the contest when Richardson eventually dabbed forward and managed to regather his grubber and evade Evalds’ best attempt to prevent him grounding.

It started Castleford’s own quickfire blast and, as is so often the case, McShane, the burly hooker, was central to their revival.

He darted out for a runaround with Nathan Massey before lofting a pass over for Michael Shenton to cross and then used his strength to dummy over himself from close range for Richardson’s conversion to make it 18-18 after just 27 minutes.

Tigers took the lead when McShane’s perfect pass near halfway sent Richardson haring into space, Gareth O’Brien arriving on his shoulder to finish off.

Still, the advantage did not last long; Watts spilled moments after Castleford had been awarded a set again and Lolohea slipped Luke Yates over far too easily before Inu converted.

Watts atoned by producing a quality offload out of the tackle to set Richardson free once more at the start of the second period, Mike McMeeken claiming the supporting role to score.

But Rhys Williams shrugged off Richardson and O’Brien to clamber over in the corner in the 53rd minute, Inu making it 30-30.

Richardson, though, stepped up to make sure.

Salford Red Devils: Evalds; Inu, Welham, Kear, Williams; Lolohea, Brown; Dudson, Lussick, Yates, Greenwood, McCarthy, Flanagan. Substitutes: Pauli, Ikahihifo, Burke, Ackers.

Castleford Tigers: O’Brien; Olpherts, Foster, Shenton, Eden; Mata’utia, Richardson; Watts, McShane, Griffin, Holmes, McMeeken, Massey. Substitutes: Millington, Milner, Moors, Turner.

Referee: Robert Hicks (Oldham).

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Thank you

James Mitchinson