A TRY, five minutes from time, gave Dinnington victory in their first home league game of the season over newly-promoted Castleford.

However, the game was not as close as the scoreline.

Dinnington expected, and got, a very physical test of their abilities as they came up against a big Castleford side.

Playing against the elements in the first half, they missed chances to score tries, once being brought back for a forward pass, but two well-struck penalties by Darren Cannadine saw them take a 6-0 lead into half-time.

Castleford relied heavily on their big pack to try and drive through the Dinnington defence, but they were met with some awesome tackling and were knocked back repeatedly.

Much of the play was very scrappy and the game never really got going, as the referee seemed determined to keep a tight control on proceedings, but Dinnington were pleased with their first half.

The hosts continued to hold the ascendancy in the second half, and went further ahead when Cannadine landed a drop goal.

Castleford were providing very little threat to the home line until Dinnington had a player sent to the sin bin and suddenly the game turned on its head.

Taking full advantage of their extra man, Castleford ran in two tries to go 12-9 ahead with 12 minutes to go, and were seemingly set to steal the points.

Dinnington came back strongly, winning a penalty five metres from the visitors' line, giving them a chance to level the scores.

However, with everyone else expecting a kick, scrum-half Lawrence Ross took a quick tap and managed to worm his way through the Castleford defence to score by the posts; Dean Lax added the conversion.

Castleford were never going to be able to respond and their day got worse when they had a player sent off in the final minutes, and they had already had two others sin-binned during the half.

Tomorrow, Dinnington are away to Leodiensians who were beaten by Huddersfield YM in their last game.

Castleford II 27
Dinnington III 36

A SUPERB second half recovery saw Dinnington seconds record their first win of the season.

Castleford took the early initiative scoring inside the first five minutes.

They then followed this up with two more tries, from rolling mauls, to lead 15-0 after a quarter of an hour.

Dinnington struggled to compete against the big home pack but when they moved the ball along their backs they enjoyed a lot of success.

Not only that, it built up their confidence and two tries from James Marsden, both converted by Danny Westmoreland, brought them to within three points of their hosts.

Just before half-time, another forwards try moved Castleford 20-12 ahead, and then early in the second half they stretched their lead to 27-12.