Tough calls go against Castleford Tigers in defeat at Warrington Wolves

While not wanting to make it an excuse, McGuire felt the need to mention Marcus Griffiths' handling of the match in which the Tigers went down 34-24 at Challenge Cup finalists Warrington Wolves.

Several calls had also gone against Cas in the game with Leeds Rhinos the previous week and again they did not get many of the 50-50 decisions at the Halliwell Jones Stadium

They did not help themselves with some weak defence allowing the Wolves to open a big lead with three early tries and although they kept battling to the final hooter a victory never looked likely.

“I thought we got some really poor calls,” McGuire said after the game.

“I don’t want to whinge, but there were a few decisions that didn’t go our way but the lads are just scrapping away.

“We’ve had some setbacks, Joe Westerman pulled out this morning. We lost our captain 15, 20 minutes in.

"We’ve got some players that haven’t played a lot of game time but they’re still scrapping away and fighting for each other and committing.”

Cas were quickly behind as Josh Thewlis raced over wide out.

His brother Jake followed suit soon after following a big decision to give Warrington an extra six tackles after a kick bounced up off a Tigers boot. It was debatable if the ball was played at, but from the set that followed it was a smart move for space to be created for the second try.

A harsh penalty gave Wolves further good field position from which they scored again after Stefan Ratchford's grubber kick bounced awkwardly for the visitors' defence and Rodrick Tai touched down, the try being awarded by the video referee.

George Lawler put the Tigers' first points on the board as he followed up Rowan Milnes' well judged grubber near the line, but Warrington soon reasserted their superiority with Arron Lindop charging over to make it 22-6 at half-time.

The first try after the break was always going to be vital and it went to the hosts as Ben Currie got on the end of Marc Sneyd's clever kick.

It was about damage limitation from this point and at least the Tigers achieved some of this with clever play by Milnes sending Lawler over for his second try.

Good handling led to Innes Senior scoring in the corner and with Milnes kicking his third goal there were a few thoughts of an unlikely comeback.

These were quickly extinguished as Warrington scored again off the back of a third successful Captain's Challenge and being allowed to get away with a forward pass from Matt Dufty who sent Stefan Ratchford over.

To Castleford's credit they kept playing to the end and right on the hooter scored their fourth try when Josh Simm finished in the corner after good work by Chris Atkin.

Not for the first time this season it was too little, too late, however, as another two points had slipped from the Tigers' grasp.