Saints 42 Castleford Tigers 16 SUPER League champions Saints trod the hallowed Anfield turf for the first time on Sunday, and what was seen as a gamble proved an outstanding success for the enterprising Knowsley Road club.

For a bumper crowd of 12,329 turned up at the shrine of Liverpool soccer to see Saints and Castleford lay on enough entertainment to warrant making the affair an annual event. Basement side they may be with nine losses in as many games but, spurred by new coach Stuart Raper, once-classy 'Cas' gave a Saints team not at their best plenty to think about in the opening 30 minutes before the Wembley-conscious 'homesters' found their touch and with it comfortable victory.

Hat-trick hero Karle Hammond took the McEwan Lager man-of-the-match award but he was quick to acknowledge the part played by his team-mates, as was Paul Newlove who claimed the Owens Corning accolade with a two-try show which was all too much for Cas.

Apollo Perelini, Keiron Cunningham and Chris Joynt also figured high in the match ratings, as did dynamic substitutes Andy Northey and Ian Pickavance who did their Wembley prospects a power of good as they set Anfield alight with their power-packed running and ability to release the ball in the tackle. Live-wire out-half Danny Orr gave Castleford a first-minute lead with a penalty for ball-stealing and the Yorkshire side, although pushing the offside rule to its limits, proceeded to enjoy territorial advantage in the opening quarter without piercing a water-tight Saints' defence.

Dissent then found Brendan Tuuta bound for the sin-bin and Saints took full toll of numerical superiority as Bobbie Goulding's astute pass put Newlove over for the skipper to tack on the goal points. The Tigers roared back through Dean Sampson and Jason Lidden only for Tommy Martyn to distinguish himself with a try-saving tackle, and it was Saints who set the scoreboard moving again when, after Newlove was stopped on the line, Steve Prescott and Perilini carved out an opening for Hammond, with Goulding converting.

With Northey entering the fray for blood-binned Julian O'Neill, Saints moved into a 16-2 half time lead when the hard-grafting Joynt and Goulding put Newlove over again, and when Bobbie added a penalty when Graham Steadman was guilty of indiscipline there was more than a hint of a points deluge to come. Evidence to support that belief came on the restart when the Saints' scrum-half cross-kicked from the left wing across the posts for the fast-following Martyn to score another six-pointer. Castleford wasted a glaring opportunity when Lidden broke away but failed to spot unmarked St. Helens product Jason Roach on his right but, remarkably, the Tigers bounced back into fleeting contention when admirable skipper Mike Ford twice chipped to the Saints right for Adrian Vowles and then Simon Middleton to score.

Orr converted the second touchdown from the sideline, but Northey brought the seated crowd to its feet with a magnificent 50-yard break which had try written all over it, but Castleford substitute Diccon Edwards thought otherwise with a superb last-ditch tackle.

However the touch paper had been lit for an 18-points-in-as-many-minutes spree by Saints, with full-back Prescott's convincing dummy seeing him achieve a lifetime's ambition in scoring at the Kop end; Northey, Perelini and Goulding then put Hammond over , before Pickavance's tremendous surge saw Karle make it three in a row.

Goulding tacked on the conversions to finish with seven goals, while the never-say-die Tigers, who will surely climb the table on this showing, had the last say with a fine consolation try from Orr.

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