IT is perhaps fitting that a quest to end a 59-year wait involves a trip to a place full of charming reminders of yesteryear.

For once Warrington got the full reward for one of their trademark charge-downs when Ryan Atkins did well to gather the ball in and race clear for a try in the first five minutes.

It came after Ben Harrison produced the charge-down on Jamie Ellis' clearance.

For most of the first half Wire looked in control, but they missed several chances to apply pressure on the Castleford line.

So instead of going clear on the scoreboard, the Tigers drew within two points with a try coming from a high kick.

Wire did manage one more try in the first half, with a vintage handling move to the right finished off by yet another Joel Monaghan try.

A six-point lead that could have been plenty more left an uneasy feeling at half time, as if hosts Castleford might come out after the break playing with a dangerous freedom feeling like they had been let off the hook.

When Luke Dorn jinked his way through the Wire defence for a try that was converted to close the gap to two points, it did nothing to stop the uneasy feeling among the Warrington fans.

However, Wire did always look likely to have a burst of points in them and, as often has been the case this season, they looked at their most dangerous when they started getting a succession of their quicker, more agile players running from acting half back and gaining lots of ground and quick play-the-balls down the middle.

The run that broke the game wide open again came from the impressive Stefan Ratchford, who made a break right through the middle of Castleford’s defence and then produced a great offload to the ever supporting Richie Myler.

Myler subsequently timed his pass perfectly to allow Gareth O’Brien to race away to score.

Rhys Evans then did brilliantly to scoop up the ball off the floor before forcing his way over and Joel Monaghan added another to open up a winning lead.

That was despite a late flurry by Castleford, including a Michael Shenton score.

A third consecutive Grand Final appearance will have to be earned the hard way, by beating the defending champions on their own patch.

These are the nights that only five years ago were just fanciful dreams, let’s hope for another epic encounter where rugby league is the winner – and by that I mean the Wire!