YORK City Knights coach Mick Cook lauded the character in his side after they stormed back from 31-12 down at Keighley to win 42-31.

The Knights ran in six tries without reply in 18 amazing minutes at the end of yesterday's game to stun the hosts and get their first LHF Healthplan National League Two points on the board.

The turnaround came after the Cougars had been controversially reduced to 12 men following the 57th minute sending-off of full-back Matt Bramald for a high tackle on the inspirational Adam Sullivan, but Cook nonetheless hailed it as "a great comeback".

"It was the proverbial game of two halves," he said. "Once we got a sniff, we held Keighley to one try in the second half, got right on board with each other and scored six tries.

"We showed great character to come back. We kept making those try-saving tackles, kept getting back at them and scored some spectacular tries, and we could have had more with a bit more support play and better finishing."

The Knights only went ahead in the 75th minute and Cook admitted there were times during the comeback when he thought his side might not get there.

"There were a few occasions when it looked like it was not going to be our day but you've got to admire the character they showed," he said.

"We're on the league ladder now with two points and it's kick-started our season."

Keighley coach Gary Moorby was "disappointed" with the performance of referee Phil Bentham while home fans felt the sending-off was a turning point, but Cook said: "It probably had some baring but I thought we were good enough anyway and that we would have been dangerous. We just had to get into the right areas and we did that."

The Knights had given the Cougars a leg-up in the first half with a few blunders and Cook knows his side have to cut out the mistakes -- and not rely on late comebacks every week.

"A few errors gave Keighley a few opportunities to score and they're going to punish you if you make mistakes early in the tackle count," he said.

"We knew we had underachieved in the first half and needed to clean things up. But we clicked into gear and happily got a great result.

"We know what we're capable of and we know we can play, but we have to get a lot of other things right."

Cook also praised prop forward Sullivan, who scored a try in a man of the match performance. "Adam Sullivan caused them problems every time he carried the ball and at times when we needed him," he said.

Updated: 09:48 Monday, April 11, 2005