Stand-off Dean Widders grabbed two tries in a five-minute spell to help Castleford Tigers leapfrog Wakefield Trinity Wildcats into the top eight with a crucial victory in an entertaining Engage Super League derby at The Jungle.

With Bradford Bulls failing to halt their losing run, the Tigers are now in pole position to claim the final play-off spot.
 
Castleford look to have the edge over the Wildcats in the race for a new ground and today’s victory was a real tonic on the field for Terry Matterson’s men as they bounced back from their crushing defeat at Warrington Wolves.
 
In a match low on quality but high on excitement, only two points separated the evenly-matched sides until the chunky Widders demonstrated deceptive pace to touch down Rangi Chase’s grubber kick on 58 minutes.

When Widders dummied his way past Daryl Millard five minutes later to claim his second try, there was no way back for Wakefield, despite a second try from the battling Glenn Morrison, who had given his side the lead with his first score after only eight minutes.

Little went right for the visitors from the moment Richard Moore knocked on from the kick-off and they had winger Sean Gleeson sin-binned for dissent 10 minutes before half-time.

Yet Wakefield played their best rugby while down to 12 men and regained the lead with full-back Matt Blaymire’s well-taken try seven minutes before the break.

With half-backs Chase and Widders pulling the strings, however, Castleford always looked the more likely winners of the Adam Watene Trophy.

Right winger Kirk Dixon had scored their only first-half try, finishing strongly at the corner, and he added a second two minutes into the second half following a fine break by man-of-the-match Widders.

Left winger Michael Wainwright took Brett Ferres’ final pass to finish off a slick handling move and extend the Tigers advantage to 18-10 before Morrison demonstrated exceptional strength to score a solo try.

The match was delicately balanced at that stage but Widders struck in decisive fashion to create a momentum shift and the home side finished in total command with two more tries in the last eight minutes.

England centre Michael Shenton carved out a touchdown for full-back Ryan McGoldrick and skipper Ryan Hudson supplied the finishing touches with a seventh try a minute from the end.

Joe Westerman kicked five goals from six attempts before limping off, leaving Dixon to add another conversion.