Castleford's flying start to the engage Super League season continued as they edged a thrilling encounter at The Jungle.

At one point the home side were 16 points behind with 13 minutes remaining and looking all but beaten.

But the Tigers sparked into life and three tries in eight minutes gave Castleford their first win over Bradford since September 2003.

The crucial score came two minutes from time when Rangi Chase crossed for the hosts' fifth try of the day and Kirk Dixon converted to seal the win.

Tigers boss Terry Matterson included young prop Nathan Massey in his squad in place of the injured Liam Higgins, while Ryan Clayton remained sidelined after undergoing shoulder reconstruction.

And there were no changes to the Bradford side that won in Perpignan last week after Matt Cook failed to recover from a virus in time.

An early handling error from the visitors handed the Tigers a good chance to test the Bulls defence.

The home forwards drove the ball upfield and when Bradford were penalised for lying on in the tackle, winger Kirk Dixon was given the opportunity to put points on the board but sent the resulting penalty wide of the posts.

The first try came in the 15th minute when full-back Michael Platt crossed for the Bulls.

The running of Semi Tadulala allowed Chris Nero to dummy his way through a gaping hole in the Castleford defence and find Platt on the inside. Paul Deacon made no mistake in adding the extras from out wide.

Castleford responded three minutes later with Michael Shenton jinking his way over.

A poor pass across the midfield confused the Bradford defence and Brett Ferres did well to scoop the ball up and find Shenton with a long pass.

Still with work to do the Tigers centre stepped inside and beat several defenders on his way to the line.

Bradford regained the lead when after driving the ball to within metres of the try line they worked the ball out wide.

Again Nero was the creator with a long pass which left Tadulala the simple task of crashing over.

And they opened up a 10-point lead in the 28th minute when Andy Lynch piled over - hitting the posts in the process - after Platt cleverly slipped him the ball.

Great handling by the Tigers backs resulted in a score just before the break by Dixon, who failed with the conversion to leave the scores 16-10 in Bradford's favour at the interval.

Just 90 seconds after the restart the Bulls touched down. Strong running from loose forward Jamie Langley left the Tigers defence exposed and with just one defender to beat he sent Glenn Morrison over.

Sykes missed the conversion but hit a penalty moments.

Dave Halley added a further score when Deacon orchestrated a simple move where the Bulls worked the ball from one side of the pitch to the other and then back - allowing Halley to saunter over from close range.

Castleford finally added some second-half points in the 67th minute when some fine running from Dean Widders allowed Dixon to cross.

And then two minutes later they scored again after centre Ryan McGoldrick collected a grubber kick through and unselfishly passed to Shenton who touched down.

The comeback was complete when Chase crossed to level the tie and Dixon converted to spark jubilant scenes.