Castleford Tigers’ players are determined to right the wrongs of last weekend when they head to Manchester for Super League’s ‘Magic’ round.

The Tigers were so woeful in their 70-12 defeat at Hull KR that the first-team squad opted to release a statement offering an apology to their supporters.

They have an immediate chance to make amends with a derby-day meeting with Wakefield Trinity Wildcats in Saturday’s opening fixture at Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium, and will fancy themselves to do so having already beaten the Wildcats this season.

For the versatile Brett Ferres, though, any sort of win is needed to make it up to the club’s fans.

“That statement came from the players not the club,” he said.

“We had a good chat and it was embarrassing looking at the Hull KR game.

“It wasn’t acceptable and we thought we needed to put something out there that said: ‘Look, we are sorry, we didn’t mean to do that’.

“It was needed, it was definitely from the players and was nothing that the club put out.”

A caveat is that the Tigers were ravaged by the loss of their three first-choice half-backs in the injured Danny Orr and the suspended Rangi Chase and Ryan McGoldrick.

As a result, Ferres was thrown into an unfamiliar stand-off role, but believes that none of that trio would have stopped the Craven Park horror show.

“Having them out doesn’t help, but when you look at Rangi, Danny Orr and Goldy, it was not in the attack it was the defence, and that killed us,” he said.

“We had tackles missed left, right and centre. We were all over the shop. Those players would have helped a little, but I don’t think that much.”

Ferres does believe a positive can be taken from the drubbing, though.

“I don’t think it can get much worse if I’m honest, anyone who saw the game will see that,” he added.

“We are working hard this week and what better way to turn it around than a Cas-Wakey derby.”

While Ferres and his team-mates have been unable to defend of late, Saturday’s opponents Wakefield have struggled to perform for 80 minutes.

They were level with title hopefuls Warrington Wolves going into half-time of their meeting on Sunday, only to lose 42-12.

Such second-half collapses have become an unwanted trait for Wakefield this season, and centre Dean Collis knows they need to put it right.

“It’s really frustrating, we need to put in an 80-minute performance,” he said.

“Dropping away in the second half is something we need to work on.

“Going in at 12-12 at half-time and to come away with the score what it was, we were pretty disappointed.

“We’ve been pretty disappointed with how we’ve played for the last six weeks. We’ve got something to prove and need to turn it around.”