WOLVES suffered a mauling by Castleford Tigers as they suffered their third straight defeat.
They went down by 44 points to 24 at Castleford and now must wait until the last game of the season to see if it is they or Wigan to claim fourth place.
Coach Jimmy Lowes admitted being “a little bit shell shocked” after the defeat.
And he was critical of his whole team.
“I don’t think anybody can be spared. Across the board we were poor and a very distant second best,” he said.
“We’re heading into the play-offs but it that the form we’re in, it will be very short-lived.”
To make matters worse, stand-off Lee Briers was carried off with a knee injury.
It was tries from Briers and Chris Riley (2) that kept Wolves in touch at half time.
But they struggled to keep up with the bottle-of-the-table Tigers.
Lowes added: “Cas ran harder than us and tackled harder than us and fully deserved to win by the margin they did.
“We’ll find the reasons why next week.”
In fairness, although the Tigers look likely to finish their first season back in the top flight at the bottom of the table, they have pulled off a few surprise wins during the season and Wolves have joined an impressive list of victims which also includes Bradford, Leeds and St Helens.
