Leaders Castleford See Off Stubborn Salford

Super League leaders Castleford bounced back from last weekend's surprise defeat to St Helens by battling past stubborn Salford to cement their place on top of the table on Friday

LONDON, , (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 12th Aug, 2017 ) - Super League leaders Castleford bounced back from last weekend's surprise defeat to St Helens by battling past stubborn Salford to cement their place on top of the table on Friday.

Having looked imperious during the regular season, losing just three times in 23 games, Castleford suffered a 26-12 home defeat to Saints in their opening Super 8s contest. But they responded with a gritty, if not completely fluent, 23-4 victory over Salford on Friday.

Zak Hardaker crossed for two first-half tries, both converted by Luke Gale, as he finished off a clever Paul McShane run before scything through a static Salford defence from 30 metres out and dotting down under the posts.

New Zealand Warriors legend Manu Vatuvei, on his Red Devils home debut, latched on to a Todd Carney grubber to narrow the deficit to 12-4 early in the second half. But McShane threw a beautiful dummy to race over and Jy Hitchcox finished a sublime team move to see the table-toppers home.

Elsewhere on Friday, third-placed Hull FC edged a low-scoring contest at St Helens to close the gap on second-placed Leeds to just a single point. With the scores tied at 6-6, Marc Sneyd successfully booted a mammoth 50-metre penalty with 15 minutes remaining to hand the Black and Whites an 8-6 triumph - their fourth win in a row.