Head coach Lee Radford declared himself “over the moon” after Hull moved up to third in the Super League table following victory at Castleford.

The Tigers looked in control as they led 14-4 at half-time thanks to tries from Greg Minikin and Junior Moors. Peter Mata’utia kicked three goals, while Ratu Naulago replied for the visitors.

However, Albert Kelly’s 18-minute second-half treble and Naulago’s second secured Hull’s third successive win with a 31-18 scoreline at the Mend-A-Hose Jungle.

Former Castleford half-back Marc Sneyd, who finished with 11 points, passed the 1,000-mark for Hull as Jake Connor also put in a stellar performance with four assists.

The Black and Whites have been decimated with injuries, with Radford counting as many as 12 players on the sidelines, and he was delighted with his side’s performance.

When asked how he rated the result, Radford said: “Really big. I’m really proud of the turnaround after half-time.

“I thought in the first half, the speed at the start of their sets really hurt us and at half-time, that was one thing we needed to fix.

“I challenged Bureta (Faraimo), Ratu and Jamie Shaul to do better in the transitions. I’m over the moon with the response after half-time.

“To come here and get a result is really tough but to come here and get a result with all them blokes missing – I don’t bleat about injuries but I do when we’ve won, so I’m really pleased about that.”

Radford was keen to lower expectations when asked if Hull are in the driving seat in the chasing pack behind runaway leaders St Helens and Warrington.

They next travel to Catalans Dragons, who can reclaim third place from Hull if they defeat London Broncos on Saturday.

“I don’t know, I’m sure there will be plenty of cliffs to fall off, but I’m going to enjoy this one tonight,” Radford said. “It was a top, top performance.

“The teams we have knocked off away from home, Warrington stands out to me massively and this one is big tonight.”

Castleford boss Daryl Powell was frustrated with his side’s second-half display and believes they are shooting themselves in the foot after they missed the chance to leapfrog Hull.

“The second half was really frustrating but I thought in the first half we really took control of the game and put Hull under a lot of pressure,” Powell said.

“I thought our game-management in the second half was terrible.

“The swings in the game were massive against us. I just don’t think we had any control in the game at any point, even though I thought we were in the game throughout, we hurt ourselves too much.

“Hull are clinical and are one of those teams who can really take advantage as you see with the breakaway tries.

“We are hurting ourselves and we need to sort it out pretty quickly.”