TONY Smith is urging the game's chiefs to eradicate a drop-goal issue before it impacts on the result of a crucial game.

His plea is timely, coming ahead of the Challenge Cup Final at Wembley this weekend and on the back of occurring in Saturday's game between Warrington Wolves and Castleford Tigers at The Halliwell Jones Stadium.

Smith highlighted how Castleford full back Luke Dorn body-checked second marker Ben Currie near Grant Millington's play-the-ball as the Warrington back rower attempted to charge down Luke Gale's drop goal attempt.

The obstruction just gave Gale enough time to cleanly slot over a one-pointer that put Cas 11-10 ahead with two minutes to play.

As it was, Jack Hughes crossed for the winning try for Warrington a minute later.

Smith said: "This has been a bugbear of mine for a long time.

"We've actually lost some games with this happening.

"I'm really glad we won because I can't mention it if we lose - because then it would be sour grapes, that I shouldn't be mentioning it because I'm just dirty that we lost the game.

"We won the game, and now I'm saying that needs to be removed.

"I'm not having a crack at any one particular team, it is almost all teams.

"When field goals are taken, you're almost allowed to do anything if you're the attacking team taking the kick.

"With other kicks in play, you get penalties given away for shoulder charges or protecting the catchers, or obstructions.

"But you can do anything you want when somebody takes a field goal. Honestly, go and have a look at the Castleford field goal on Saturday.

"We've lost games in similar ways, where Luke Dorn comes charging out at Ben Currie who is going legitimately to charge down the kick - or save the game if you like.

"He just gets taken way out of play.

"When it comes to field goals, all they're (the match officials) worried about is did that ball go through the posts.

"That's all they'll look for, instead of looking to see if there were any obstructions or any infringement caused by the attacking team who kicked the goal.

"That has to change because it can cost you.

"It's happened to us a number of times and I'm sure we've probably been guilty of it ourselves, so I'm not having a crack at any one particular team.

"It's something that needs to be looked at before a big game is lost or won on an infringement like that."

You can watch the obstruction HERE from the 1min 50secs point of the video clip