Shaun Wane has blasted the attitude of his Wigan players as their play-off chances hang by a thread after defeat to Castleford.

The first half in particular angered Wane as Castleford, inspired by Jake Trueman, who grabbed a hat-trick, romped into a 20-0 lead by the break as the Warriors looked well off the pace.

Things improved slightly after the break, but Cas still wrapped up a 20-38 win, meaning Wigan now have to beat Wakefield next week and hope other results also go their way if they are to keep alive their hopes of making the Grand Final.

Wane was far from happy and blamed his side’s poor attitude for the defeat.

"I'm embarrassed that my old team-mates saw that. It was way off the standards of a team I coach," Wane said. "I'm not sure how much difference he [captain Sean O'Loughlin] would have made. We would have defended better but I never saw that first half coming.

"It came down to poor attitude. We improved in the second half but too many individuals had off days in our biggest game at the back end of the season. It's really disappointing. We now need favours off other teams."