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Super League: Warrington Wolves 9-8 Castleford Tigers - Blake Austin drop-goal gives Wire victory

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Blake Austin's successful late drop-goal for Warrington came moments after he missed an initial attemptImage source, Rex Features
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Blake Austin's successful late drop-goal for Warrington came moments after he missed an initial attempt

Betfred Super League

Warrington (4) 9

Tries: Lineham Goals: Ratchford 2 Drop-goal: Austin

Castleford (2) 8

Tries: Penalty Goals: Richardson 2

Blake Austin landed a dramatic late drop-goal to give Warrington Wolves victory over Castleford Tigers.

Tom Lineham dived over to give Warrington a narrow two-point half-time lead after Danny Richardson's goal.

Castleford were awarded a penalty try for Keanan Brand's high tackle as Calum Turner was about to score after taking a superb pass from Michael Shenton.

With the score 8-8, Jake Trueman and Richardson missed drop-goal attempts prior to Austin's successful kick.

Warrington's victory maintains their unbeaten home Super League record this season, coming on top of Hull FC's drop-goal victory against Wakefield on Friday.

Castleford could have gone back top of Super League had they beaten the Wire were it not for Austin's second attempt at a drop-goal which came moments after missing an initial effort.

There was controversy in the second half when Turner looked to have narrowly been pulled in to touch by some quick work from Brand.

Video referee Liam Moore awarded a penalty try to the visitors after replays showed that Brand's arm had gone in on Turner's face prior to him managing to ground the ball over the line.

Daryl Clark looked to have given Warrington some breathing room, but his score was ruled out for a double movement just before Cheyse Blair put in a defensive tackle.

Cas were left without Oliver Holmes for the late run-in after he appeared to sustain an ankle injury in the build up to Clark's try attempt.

Warrington Wolves boss Steve Price:

"When Blake missed his first attempt it just goes to show what type of a player he is. He never went in his shell.

"He said 'Give me the ball and we go again' and he nailed it. It just goes to show he's a quality player under pressure.

"It goes to show we have a group who really care about each other and the town and supporters and that's a performance which is a standard we need to reach every week.

"That's the level of consistency we are trying to chase and we have a good opportunity next week to go to Hull and put in another strong performance."

Castleford Tigers coach Daryl Powell:

"We just couldn't get the drop goals and just didn't have the composure which I don't think we showed all night.

"It was a really determined, tough effort but we just lacked a bit of quality in our game and didn't quite execute. Even though it was there for us at the end, they probably just shaded it.

"I just felt we were a bit off our game. They were a desperate team. You can see there was a fair bit of relief lifted at this place with the win.

"While I never like to lose, I'm happy for Pricey because you don't like to see people put under that intense scrutiny and pressure."

Warrington: Ratchford, Lineham, King, Brand, Charnley, Austin, Widdop, Hill, Walker, Cooper, Currie, Murdoch-Masila, J. Clark.

Interchanges: D. Clark, Philbin, Mamo, Akauola.

Castleford: Rankin, Olpherts, Mata'utia, Shenton, Turner, Trueman, Richardson, Smith, McShane, Griffin, Blair, McMeeken, Massey.

Interchanges: Millington, Holmes, Milner, Sene-Lefao.

Referee: Robert Hicks.

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