TONY Smith said his side were ‘blown away’ by the speed of Castleford’s play in the first half of tonight’s home 30-22 loss.

Wolves took a 6-0 lead through the first of Andre Savelio’s two tries but a Cas rally of four tries in eight minutes put them in charge at 22-6.

A Tom Lineham effort shortly before half time gave Wolves a lifeline in a pulsating contest and they pulled it back to 26-22 in the final quarter but a second score from Greg Eden five minutes from time sealed Castleford’s second win of the campaign, leaving The Wire rooted at the bottom of the ladder.

“I can understand why people would have enjoyed the game as there was some good rugby league played,” said Smith, who lost the services of acting skipper Kurt Gidley earlier today with a vomiting bug.

“It ended up being a good contest - it looked like it might not be at one stage, when we couldn't cope with the speed of their play-the-ball.

“They blew our legs off in the first half. The speed at which Greg Eden and Zak Hardaker got down and up, and played the ball, was something we struggled to cope with.

“Some of our players do that to teams at times. Eden was very Matty Russell-like there tonight. We really struggled to cope with his footwork, his spins and his bumps.

“He got their roll started.”

But he accepted The Wire were not firing on all cylinders too and said who knows if the effort in defeating Brisbane the week before had played a part.

“We’re certainly not going to hide behind that,” he said, “ I'm not going to shy away from the fact a few of our boys were off their best in the first half.

“I thought they were a bit below some of their performances last week and you can't afford to be that way when you're opposition have got some attack in them, and Cas showed that they did.”

He praised his players for digging in during the second half and getting back to within four points.

“I'm really proud of my players that when they are a bit off they get out there and show some character and get themselves back into an arm wrestle,” he said.

“And they get themselves into an entertaining game of rugby league, and get back to a point with a bit more fortune of maybe pinch the game at 22-26.

“You wouldn't have picked that in some of the first-half performance.

“But to still concede 30 points isn't pleasing in our dressing room. We need to concede less and a few of those consecutive tries, those back-to-back ones that really hurt you.”