WARRINGTON Wolves booked a play-offs semi-final spot with a win over Castleford Tigers at the Mend-A-Hose Jungle.

Tries from Ryan Atkins and Joel Monaghan sandwiched a Jamie Ellis effort as Wolves entered the break with a six-point lead.

Stefan Ratchford added a penalty after the interval before Luke Dorn’s effort was cancelled out Gareth O’Brien, Rhys Evans and Joel Monaghan scores.

Michael Shenton reduced the deficit after Evans was sin-binned late on, but Wolves held out to keep their Grand Final dreams alive.

With four minutes on the clock, Wolves’ first foray into Castleford territory seemed to have ended when Dorn caught O’Brien’s high ball and Daryl Clark was able to drive his side forward from the play-the-ball.

But on the sixth tackle, Ellis failed to clear the onrushing Ben Harrison and the ball rebounded kindly into the path of Atkins, who had the legs to go the distance and give Wolves a much better start than against Widnes five days ago. Ratchford added the extras.

Tony Smith’s delight at an early try quickly turned to concern, however, as top try-scorer Joel Monaghan went down after a collision with teammate Chris Bridge.

The hosts looked to have started in the same fashion that saw them thumped at St Helens in the previous round, but a big hit on Ratchford, that caused the full back to knock on, seemed to rejuvenate the crowd at the Mend-A-Hose Jungle.

The Tigers eventually found space for Ellis to slide a grubber behind Wolves’ defence, but unlike for two Paddy Flynn tries last week the loose ball was just about dealt with.

At the other end, Ellis failed to deal with another O’Brien bomb on 17 minutes and Cas were forced to scramble back to stop Evans finding a gap.

Despite an early try, Wolves’ attack looked laboured minus a couple of jinking runs from Ratchford, joining the line from full back, as Paul Wood’s first contribution resulted in knocking on Chris Hill’s short-range pass.

Wood’s second touch was another fumble, relieving any pressure Wolves had built and giving Castleford the put in.

The hosts took full advantage, Ellis chasing his own high kick and gathering from James Clare’s knock down to dart over the line. Marc Sneyd pulled the conversion wide with 15 minutes of the half remaining.

But within two minutes Wolves had re-established their lead. Hill was held up short in front of the posts and Michael Monaghan was quick to the play-the-ball.

The joint-skipper passed on to O’Brien and once the ball travelled through hands to Bridge there was little doubt the centre would tee up Monaghan outside him. The Australian dived over for his 36th try of the season.

Ratchford was unable to add the extras from wide out.

The Tigers poured forward moments before the break, but when Roy Asotasi intercepted the hosts lost their momentum and the hooter went as Joel Monaghan punched a deep kick dead.

The first half had seen solid defence from both sides, and the second looked to continue in the same fashion – although not helped by Wolves’ at times slow attack.

Ben Currie was the latest to fumble in uncharacteristic style from a simple pass in his own half. The hosts were also lacking in attack, and Micky Higham brought an end to their first venture towards the Wolves line when he dived on Ellis’ attempted grubber.

Bridge chased hard to get onto a long Richie Myler grubber with 10 minutes of the half played, but the ball trickled out of the in-form centre’s grasp.

Three minutes later and with Sneyd penalised for holding onto Ratchford almost 40 metres from the sticks, Wolves’ utility man took the opportunity to add two points with the boot.

With an eight-point lead Wolves regained some composure and Asotasi, arguably enjoying his best game for Warrington, was nearly able to reach over for the visitors’ third – the video referee proved otherwise.

However, Castleford responded to that scare immediately. Moving the ball quickly through hands, full back Dorn collected at speed and broke the Wolves line to reduce the deficit. Sneyd converted from in front of the posts with 57 minutes played.

The noise in the Jungle was increasing and the Tigers were beginning to find their stride, but a lightening break from Wolves soon dampened the home faithful’s spirits.

Ratchford gathered quickly at dummy half following Hill’s powerful drive on the half way, which led to the full back giving a superb offload to Myler.

The former Widnes man gave a timely pass to half back partner O’Brien, who gathered one-handed before scooting over the line. Ratchford’s conversion stretched Wolves’ lead back to eight points after 63 minutes.

Three minutes later and Wolves were in again, this time Ratchford’s looping pass found Evans via the finger tips of a Castleford player and the winger scooped up to crash over from close range. Ratchford converted.

Ratchford was flying from full back and another break at speed dissected the Tigers’ defence before a high tackle from Weller Hauraki halted the 26-year-old.

Ratchford took to his feet to slot a penalty from inside the Castleford half, 50 metres from where he had collected the ball.

And with eight minutes remaining Joel Monaghan all-but secured Wolves’ progression into the play-offs semi finals. The ball was worked right to the Australian and the winger rolled over for try number 37 of the season.

Ratchford added his sixth goal from seven attempts.

It should have been simple for Wolves to see out, but the task became a little harder when Evans found himself in the sin-bin. Although future Wolves man Clark was held up from the restart.

Tigers made their numerical advantage count with players spare on the left off a delicate lob and Shenton allowed space to cross.

Monaghan looked like adding a second hat-trick in two weeks when he intercepted close to his own line, but Clark had the legs to catch him.