Craig Lingard has been encouraged by Castleford Tigers’ progress on his watch despite suffering an 11th defeat of the Super League season on Thursday night.
The improving Tigers went toe to toe with high-flying Hull KR with the help of a host of former Robins.
Sam Wood and Rowan Milnes scored tries against their old club to put Castleford in a position to claim a statement win, only for Jez Litten to nail a drop goal in the closing stages to clinch a 13-12 victory for KR.
Although the rate of progress is slow based on results, Lingard feels Castleford are a different side from the one that began this campaign with six straight defeats.
“We signed a lot of people who were inexperienced in Super League. A lot of them hadn’t played a lot of games at this level and some had played zero.
“We knew there were going to be periods in this season where we were going to get beat – and were going to get beat bad.
“It’s about learning from those defeats and blooding these people. We’re not writing the second half of the season off but these players that are playing now are going to be better next season.
“It’s getting these people in a position to play regular games week in, week out and deal with the training three or four times a week and back it up week after week.
“We’re getting to points in games where we’re challenging top teams. That’s certainly better than where we were at the start of the season.”
The new-look Tigers suffered several heavy beatings in the first half of the campaign, shipping 50 or more points at home on three occasions.
However, there are signs that Lingard’s side have turned the corner, as evidenced by the performances against Wigan Warriors and Hull KR in consecutive weeks.
After pushing defending champions Wigan all the way at Wheldon Road, Castleford backed it up with another positive display in front of their own fans.
The Tigers have shown they can mix it with the cream of Super League but Lingard knows they must take the next step and get over the line in those tight games if they are to convince the entire fanbase.
“We’ve effectively lost two games so some people would say that you might as well lose by 50 points as opposed to a point or two points.
“But for us as a team, losing these two close games has given us the belief that we are good enough to challenge when we’re on it.
“We’ve played against Wigan and Hull KR – two of the form teams who will probably end up in the top four at the end of the season – and we’ve lost two games with a points difference of minus three.
“To have that belief and knowledge that we are good enough to challenge, 100 per cent there are more positives than negatives.
“The challenge is to be consistent and do it week in, week out now and turn some of these close losses into wins.”
Next up for Castleford on the other side of the two-week international break is a daunting trip to St Helens.
“Our challenge this week was to replicate the desire from last week and we did that,” added Lingard.
“Our next game is away at the last team that pumped us down here and we’ve got to go replicate it again on their home patch.