Danny Ward sends out message to Castleford Tigers players that it is not done yet

The Tigers took a giant stride towards safety when they beat Hull 29-12 while rivals Wakefield Trinity were going down 18-10 to Catalans Dragons.

It left Cas four points clear of bottom spot with only two games remaining, but the points difference is still close enough that Ward’s men must still win again or hope that Trinity fail to pick up a victory from one of their two matches left.

Wakefield have the easier game this week as they travel to play a Leigh Leopards team that has lost three of their four games since they triumphed in the Challenge Cup final.

The Tigers are away to bang in form Wigan Warriors who have won their last six matches and are fresh off the back of a 50-0 thrashing of Leeds Rhinos. Both games are on Friday night.

"It’s not done yet because there are still four points up for grabs,” said Cas boss Ward.

"There’s two games to go and we are not safe so we’ve got to keep banging that message, but you’ve gotta enjoy wins like this.

"It was fantastic, The Jungle was rocking, but same message every week – we’ve got to roll our sleeves up and go to work again. It’s not done and that’s a clear message to the boys.

"We knew that it was a big game and we wanted a performance after last week and after out last home performance so to get the win is a great feeling.

“It’s still not job yet done, but it’s another step closer.

“We can’t keep worrying about Wakefield’s results. It’s like a bad version of The Chase. We won one and are looking to see how they are getting on and if they are moving a step closer. It’s a tough situation to be in.”

Ward praised the young players on show against Hull.

He said: “Jason (Qareqare) was fantastic and came up with a couple of big plays. Muizzy (Mustapha) was sensational and probably our best middle.

“He added loads and it was the same for Cain Robb when he jumped on at the end. The young fellas were very good and maybe we should have trusted them a bit earlier.”

Ward felt his team had shown good defensive qualities against Hull, but was disappointed with a still too high error count.

He added: “We came up with too many errors, dropping balls coming out of our own half and backing up errors with another error.

"When we did attack we caused trouble, but we could have spent a lot more time in the Hull half.

"On the flip side of that the attitude to then defend those errors was fantastic. We spoke about that from last week’s performance when we didn’t quite have that bit between our teeth, but we did. We defended as a team and stopped some try scoring opportunities.

"If you’ve got that attitude then you are doing all right and that was a step forward.

"After you get pasted like we did at Warrington it was an easy fix up, that was all we focused on in review in talking about the game. It wasn’t good enough.

"We didn’t want to drop the ball as often as we did, but there were some big defensive efforts.

"Defensively it was a better performance and it’s just gelling it all together. It’s another week where we can highlight them things and try to improve.”

Cas could be without Joe Westerman for the trip to Wigan after he had to come off the pitch with a hand injury, but they have half-back Jacob Miller and hooker Liam Horne available again after suspension.