St Helens bounced back from their shock defeat at Salford a week ago to re-open a four-point lead at the top of the Betfred Super League with a hard-earned 20-12 win over Castleford.
Tries from Curtis Sironen, Morgan Knowles and Joe Batchelor looked to have put Saints comfortably on course for victory.
But Castleford winger Bureta Faraimo scored a 12-minute hat-trick to make the match much closer at the finish.
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Both teams had to play for 10 minutes with 12 men following yellow cards for Liam Watts of Castleford in the first half and Saints' Sironen in the second.
A week ago, Kristian Woolf's team suffered a 44-12 defeat against Salford yet remained clear at the top of Super League. It was a similar story for Castleford who were embarrassed 32-6 at home by neighbours Wakefield Trinity.
Clearly keen to make amends for their showing last week, Saints were in front after just four minutes. Sironen took a short ball at pace from Jonny Lomax and took two Castleford defenders over the line with him to touch down. Tommy Makinson added the conversion to make it 6-0.
The home side continued to dominate possession, aided by a 40-20 kick from Saints which pinned Castleford deep inside their own half.
Saints doubled their lead in the 15th minute as Jack Welsby's pass sent Knowles over, spinning his way clear of the defence to score from close range. Makinson again added the goal.
Castleford's cause was not helped when they were reduced to 12 men in the 20th minute. Prop Liam Watts was shown the yellow card for a high shot on Lomax but Makinson's penalty attempt was off target.
Saints were unable to score with their extra man as they squandered several good opportunities and failed to add to their lead before the break.
Castleford conceded back-to-back penalties for offside at the start of the second half, Makinson successfully electing to take the two for the latter and edging Saints 14-0 up.
A high shot by Sironen on Faraimo saw Saints reduced to 12 in the 47th minute but it did not stop them scoring a third try.
Lomax threaded a kick through 10 metres from the Castleford tryline and the onrushing Batchelor managed to ground the ball. The try was only given on the nod of video referee Marcus Griffiths after lengthy deliberation.
Makinson's conversion gave Saints a commanding 20-0 lead as the game approached the final quarter.
Castleford scored twice in four minutes to give themselves something to build on and in both instances it was winger Faraimo powering in at the corner. His first came in the 64th minute as he took a good ball from Sosaia Feki before dropping over, but Danny Richardson was unable to convert.
His second was very much a carbon copy - again taking the final pass from Feki and touching down in the corner. Richardson's conversion attempt fell well short.
Faraimo completed his rapid-fire hat-trick four minutes from time, again showing great strength to score in the corner. Paul McShane took over goal-kicking responsibilities from Richardson but his attempt was off target.
What they said
St Helens' coach Kristian Woolf admitted he "was a lot happier" with St Helens' display against Castleford now they have restored their four-point lead in the Super League with that 20-12 win.
He said, "We made some errors that put us under pressure. But I was a lot happier with us after last week [against Salford].
"There was some good play from Castleford, especially in the second half - they hung in and made it hard for us to find points.
"There was an attitude in what we did which I liked. Our defence in the early exchanges showed we were going after our work."
Woolf was happy to have his best players back in their favoured positions, adding, "We needed a bit more balance and James Roby is the best hooker in the game, so to have him in that position was important. I think that made a difference to us.
"I also thought Jon Bennison was great against a very good kicking game from Danny Richardson."
Castleford coach Lee Radford said, "The quality of execution let us down but I can't fault the effort. I was petrified in the first 15 minutes. We grew into the game defensively.
"I think we have had the most sin-bins in the competition by some distance. We know how to weather that storm. I was very aware of how St Helens start a second period. It was important we needed to withstand their start.
"It was frustrating that we weren't able to score those tries earlier. The good sides fatigue you.
"For us to get anything out of the game we had to play to a higher standard. Eight out of 10 for effort, five out of 10 for execution."
Radford also felt the number of games being played in quick succession was starting to have an effect, saying, "I think we are seeing games now not of the highest quality. We have got another double-header before the end of the season and that's going to have a massive knock-on effect.
"The coaches don't produce the fixture list, so that's something that needs to be looked at. Across the competition it is starting to fracture."