Castleford suffer fourth straight Super League defeat after 26-22 Salford loss
Interim Castleford head coach Chris Chester accused his players of letting their town down.
Paul Rowley praised his Salford side for overcoming adversity as they chalked up only their second Betfred Super League win of the season with a long-overdue 26-22 success against Castleford.
Chris Hankinson scored 10 points for the crisis-hit Red Devils, whose victory came at a price with Jayden Nikorima and Esan Marsters facing spells on the sidelines after being helped off with injuries.
"We have had the adversity from day one and even today we were punched in the face a couple of times with Jayden and Esan coming off, and (also) Loghan Lewis, which meant we were down to one sub with half a game of rugby still to play," said Rowley.
"It came down to a situation where everybody has got to make a choice about what they want to do - do they want to dip their toe in and do it half-heartedly, or do they want to commit and they took the latter option and got their reward."
Nikorima suffered a suspected fractured arm that could keep him out for the rest of the season, while Marsters dislocated his shoulder and Lewis failed a head injury assessment.
All three will miss next week's daunting trip to Leeds, and it will soon be back to reality for the Red Devils as they wait for the arrival of a crucial bridging loan this week - without which there has been some speculation that players might refuse to play.
Rowley did not wish to address that issue directly, and also said his side's first win in 14 games would not unduly change their on-field goals for the remainder of the season, despite now standing within touching distance of the two teams above them in the table.
"I actually think being where we are, within touching distance of teams in our current situation, is remarkable in itself," added Rowley. "So you set yourself up for a fall if you try to worry about stuff like that - we are just trying to get our house in order."
Interim Castleford head coach Chris Chester accused his players of letting their town down after a "flimsy" performance that stretched their losing streak to four games.
Having surprisingly sacked head coach Danny McGuire in the wake of last week's home loss to Huddersfield, the visitors showed no improvement and it proved an all-too-familiar story of errors and ill-discipline.
"I'm disappointed with the errors we're making, and the resilience when we do make those errors because we looked so flimsy at times.
"We've got to be hard on ourselves and it's got to hurt, because we're representing the club and the town and what we're dishing up lately is not good enough. It's a rugby town and we are letting the town down with some of our performances."
Chester, the Tigers director of rugby, who has stressed he has no interest in taking on the head coach role, insisted that despite the result there is no rush to appoint McGuire's successor.
"We don't have to rush to make the decision, we have to take our time because it is so important we get the right coach in, it's got to be a long-term plan and there is a lot of faith put in me to get the selection right," he added.