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Craig Lingard warned that there would be continued ups and downs for his Castleford Tigers team as they look to progress this year – but he did not expect a big down to come so soon.

The Tigers head coach read the riot act to his players after their collapse from 8-4 down at half-time to lose 60-4 to a St Helens team forced to play 70 minutes with 12 men after the sending off of Tommy Makinson.

Lingard also apologised to Cas fans who witnessed the huge turnabout from the team that has battled so strongly to earn a draw at Leigh last week and had beaten London Broncos 40-0 the week before.

He said: "That's as poor a second half as you could possibly get. It was almost like they accepted they would get beaten and they stopped.

Castleford' Tigers' Sam Wood is dejected as his side slipped to a heavy defeat against St Helens. Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com

"We showed an immense amount of naivety when Saints went down to 12. We didn't manage the game at all. We just kept fuelling them with mistake after mistake.

"It's a massive step back from where we've been the last two or three weeks. We knew all along it's not going to be smooth, but there's no excuse for that.

"To dish that up at home is a massive leap back.

"We've got to apologise to the fans and I'll take the flak for it.”

Cas now have a week off after being knocked out of the Challenge Cup and Lingard is promising some hard work for the players.

He added: “If it means that we break some people then we break them.

“We know that we’re going to take two or three steps forward every now and again, and we’re going to take a step or two back. You can’t have a massive leap back like that. To concede 52 points in the second half is completely unacceptable.”

The Tigers saw their injury list added to by full-back Tex Hoy and back rower Akex Mellor having to leave the field with head injuries, while half-back Jacob Miller also had to come off with an ankle injury.

But Lingard is hoping two of them at least will be available for the next game against Hull on Friday, May 24.

He explained: “They (Hoy and Mellor) will be back for the Hull game if they pass the protocols.

“Mellor took a bit of a whack, I knew he wouldn’t be going back on. Tex seems fine but medically you can’t go against the doctors.

“Milky took a knock on his ankle which restricted his moment. He wanted to stay on but it was clear he couldn’t move.

"It’s one of them where do you want to go back on your horse and hit it again, but the week break gives us the chance to refresh.”

Castleford Tigers boss promises hard work ahead for players after 'unacceptable massive leap back'