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Castleford fought back from 18-0 down to claim a hard-fought Super League win over Salford in an enthralling match.

Kevin Brown, Niall Evalds and Joey Lussick all crossed for the Red Devils before tries from Danny Richardson, Michael Shenton and two from Paul McShane saw Cas turn the game around.

Luke Yates then scored just before the break to leave the score 24-24.

Cas' Mike McMeeken and Salford's Rhys Williams traded tries before Grant Millington won it for Tigers late on.

Victory meant the Tigers avoided losing a fourth successive game under coach Daryl Powell for the first time since he took over in 2014.

The Red Devils, who went into the game off the back of a 50-12 defeat by Leeds Rhinos, started the match with three unanswered tries in the opening 11 minutes.

They were gifted the opening try of the game when Brown cut out a George Griffin pass on the halfway line and raced away to touch down between the posts, and the 35-year-old's cute inside pass then let Evalds run in against the side he will be playing for next season.

Things went from bad to worse for Cas as Lussick dived in after the Tigers had given away a penalty.

Richardson got Castleford back in the game with a brilliant piece of skill to kick through for himself on the last tackle, and Shenton further reduced arrears as he stormed over after quick passing.

McShane then ran in two quickfire tries as Powell's men turned an 18-point deficit into a six-point lead in 12 minutes.

Yates then levelled the score just before half-time only for McMeeken to put Cas back in front after the restart.

The ebb and flow of the game continued with Williams doing brilliantly to get over in the corner before Richardson kicked a drop-goal to edge Cas back in front.

Fittingly, it was Richardson who set up the game's winning try with a delicate grubber kick that was scooped up by veteran Millington.

Salford coach Ian Watson:

"A massive momentum shift in the first half cost us the game.

"We should have been better than that. We started to do things that weren't us and gave them a bit of a sniff.

"Defensively we needed to be a whole lot better. We stayed with our systems and stayed in the game but we probably chased the scoreboard when we didn't need to."

Castleford coach Daryl Powell:

"There are a lot of things to improve but it was an important win for us. It's been a real tough re-introduction into the competition for us.

"We had to win tonight, if we had lost it would have been really difficult to start picking the pieces up and finding our way into the top four.

"We did some of the damage to ourselves when we went 18-0 down but it was incredible from there to fight our way back and win a tight, tense, end-to-end game."

Salford: Evalds, Inu, Welham, Inu, Kear, Williams, Lolohea, Brown, Dudson, Lussick, Yates, Greenwood, McCarthy, Flanagan.

Interchanges: Pauli, Ikahihifo, Burke, Ackers.

Castleford: O'Brien, Olpherts, Foster, Shenton, Eden, Mata'utia, Richardson, Watts, McShane, Griffin, Holmes, McMeeken, Massey.

Interchanges: Millington, Milner, Moors, Turner.