Confidence high at Castleford Tigers after '˜solid' derby win says Shenton

Tigers put the previous week’s defeat at Wigan Warriors behind them with a solid performance to beat Trinity 24-4 at the Jungle. They visit Hull on Saturday and play host to St Helens in a BBC-televised Ladbrokes Challenge Cup sixth-round tie seven days later. A week after that Tigers take on Leeds Rhinos at the Magic Weekend and then they have a Thursday-night home game against Saints, who are top of the Betfred Super League table and beat them 46-6 in round one. Tigers have yet to find their best form this season, but Shenton feels they are heading in the right direction. “We have got some of the best teams in the comp’ coming up,” Shenton observed. “It was important we put in a solid performance [last Friday] to gain some momentum and confidence going into those games. “Hull is a really tough place to go, but we will be ready for that one. “We know the challenge that’s in front of us. That is first and then we’ll worry about the others after that.” Castleford outscored Wakefield by three tries to one and Shenton described the 10th successive victory over their near-neighbours as a “tidy win”. He said: “We controlled the game for the majority of it. Wakefield threw a lot at us at times, but the conditions restricted what you can do and I think that restricted Wakefield’s game quite a lot. “They are a brilliant team to watch this year. They throw the ball about and really test you all over the place. “Both times we have played them this year it has been tough conditions, really wet, but our kicking game, the way we completed sets, was good. At times we let them out with cheap penalties and things like that. “There’s areas where we can improve, but on the whole, it was a pretty pleasing performance really.” He added: “The game didn’t get any momentum behind it; there was nothing to blame for that, it was just one of those games, but I was really pleased, especially off the back of the Wigan result. “For us to put a tidy performance in and stick to our game plan pretty well was good, even though we lost Luke Gale at half-time.” The England half-back suffered a knee injury and was in a brace after the match. Tigers were already without stand-off Ben Roberts due to injury. “I thought Paul McShane stepped in there really well and Adam Milner did a good job when he went to hooker,” Shenton said of the reshuffle after Gale went off. “He hasn’t done that for a while, he’s a bit bigger now. “A word for Jake Trueman as well, at full-back. He is doing a fantastic job.” Shenton is hopeful Gale’s absence will not be long term. He said: “Benny is out for a while. I am not sure about Luke, sometimes he has those things and bounces back. He is really durable, he is tough and he likes to play in the big games, but we did well. “Big raps go to our pack – they were outstanding. Jesse Sene-Lefao, after he hadn’t played for a while, was outstanding. “He led from the front and the rest of the guys followed his lead.”