Castleford Tigers looking up after relief of Magic victory over Leeds Rhinos

The Tigers ended a run of six successive defeats when they beat Leeds Rhinos 26-24 at Magic Weekend and are now looking up the table according to Last.​

He said: "I don't want to look at Wakefield too much because it's really important that we take care of our own business.

"It was evident that those players who've been excellent in the past can put up a performance of quality and if we get more of that from our senior blokes we'll get more wins than losses and it will be out of Wakefield's hands.

“I’m absolutely over the moon, it’s a sense of relief. It is probably the first time this year that I have felt the pressure of needing the win.

“I think when an opponent’s suffering a little bit of adversity – we’d seen they had some players missing – it felt like a significant game for us as a group, that we need to make sure we win this one.

“When we were 10 down (we were thinking) is it going to slip away from us? But I always had the belief that if we could get the ball into our best players’ hands, we could cause them some problems.”

Last praised a number of his senior players, many of who put in their best displays of the season.

He enthused: “I thought Joe Westerman and Liam Watts were very good through the middle and Gareth Widdop at full-back played his best game of the season, by some distance. You need those senior guys to stand up.

“Gaz is a quality player and person, he is a really smart rugby league player. He trains well and speaks well in his meetings. He is part of our leadership group that we lean on with his rugby knowledge.

"He picked some great passes and looked a real threat. It was a real throwback for him.”

Last was also happy to reward the fans that have stuck by the team and gave them great vocal backing at the Magic Weekend event at Newcastle after travelling in good numbers.

He added: “I am really, really pleased for the supporters because they’ve done it tough. There were over 2,000 of them there and we gave them something to sing about.”

Alex Mellor and Jordan Turner both came off injured, but Last is hopeful both can be available for Friday’s game at home to Salford.

He explained: “Alex has come off, speaking fine, he had his can of Coca-Cola after the game! He might have to have a couple of stitches.

“Jordan came into the game with a tight calf, we monitored it and during the course of the game he felt his left side tighten up.

“We think it might be a neural thing, but because of the nature of Leeds and how they play, you can’t stop moving defensively.

“He was limping and we put Kenny Edwards into the left and put a fresh body out on the left. Jordan was reluctant to come off but you can’t have any passengers out there against Leeds.”