Castleford Tigers racked up a substantial initial lead to make sure of a clear 35-22 win at the Mend-A-Hose Jungle on Saturday, denting Warrington Wolves' play-off hopes.
Coach Daryl Powel returned to the Jungle for the first time since he left Castleford to take over at the Wolves. It proved a painful experience as his old club left his current one off the play-off pace.
Powell had spent eight years in charge of his hometown club before departing for Warrington at the end of last season. He saw his side fall to a 27-0 deficit that left them too much work to do, even though they did stage a spirited, if fruitless, fightback.
The outcome reinforces Castleford's position in the top six but leaves Warrington well adrift in ninth place, four points behind Hull FC with eight matches left of the regular season.The only disappointment for Powell's successor at the Jungle, Lee Radford, was centre Cheyse Blair being sent off on the hour and full-back Niall Evalds sustaining a wrist injury.
Powell restored Stefan Ratchford to full-back for the first time for four months in the absence of an injured Gareth Widdop and gave a chance to 20-year-old Riley Dean at stand-off alongside George Williams.
Radford had his skipper Paul McShane back from suspension but was forced to continue with Greg Eden, a specialist winger, at stand-off in the absence of Jake Trueman and Gareth O'Brien.
However, Eden looked completely at ease in the role as he laid on the first two tries of the game for Derrell Olpherts, running into line and working the ball out to the right wing, where he has scored the bulk of his 101 tries so far for the club.
Warrington were all at sea in the opening quarter and, when they created an opening for left winger Matty Ashton, Evalds quickly shut it down with a tremendous last-ditch tackle and the home side extended their lead within a minute.
McShane's grubber kick caught his former Castleford team-mate Oliver Holmes flat-footed and enabled scrum-half Danny Richardson to touch down for his side's third try, to which he added his third conversion.
McShane then came up with a 40-20 kick to create the position for Richardson to slot over a drop goal and both playmakers combined to get Evalds slicing through for Castleford's fourth try five minutes before the break.
Evalds immediately left the field after damaging his wrist in the act of scoring and Jason Qareqare took over at full-back for the second half, while Connor Wrench replaced Dean after he went off for a head injury assessment.
It did not take Qareqare long to make an impact as he chimed into the line and took Richardson's pass to force his way over for another Tigers try.
Trailing 27-0, the Wolves mounted something of a comeback without ever threatening to overhaul the deficit.
Second rower Ben Currie won the race to George Williams' grubber kick to touch down after 53 minutes and three minutes later the pair combined to get Ashton racing over.
Castleford were then reduced to 12 men with the dismissal of Blair for a high tackle on winger Josh Thewlis and the visitors made the advantage count as hooker Daryl Clark and Holmes went over for further consolation tries.
The Tigers managed another try, however, created by Joe Westerman for substitute Alex Sutcliffe, and Richardson rounded off the scoring with a penalty, his fifth successful kick from seven attempts.