THE Halifax groundsman must be wondering why he bothered.

He'd prepared an almost perfect pitch yesterday, only to see his team played so much off the park they may as well have ran around the changing rooms.

Okay, Fax's confidence must have been on a low ebb given their poor league form, but they still started as favourites due to their National League One status.

However, the visitors gave arguably their best performance of the season - it was up there with the Cup victories over Featherstone - to trounce the big-guns 37-14 and become the only NL2 club to reach the last four of the Arriva Trains Cup.

That's right, the Knights are now 80 minutes from a major final, something York RL hasn't tasted since the old club reached the old Yorkshire Cup showpiece of 1979.

It wasn't as if they had it easy either.

Just like for those Featherstone feats, they went into the game with a decimated squad, and also had to contend with the late withdrawal of Craig Forsyth due to an Achilles niggle, with fellow prop Yusuf Sozi, set to rest ankle trouble, starting on the bench.

Furthermore, they played the last half-hour with only one substitute to rotate after Mick Ramsden (ankle), Dan Briggs (head) and Simon Friend (dead leg) were unable to return - meaning Damian Ball (shoulder), Aaron Wood (back) and Sozi had to battle on when normally they would have limped to the treatment table. Not that you could tell anyone was being carried, as the entire team harried, tackled and ran with unbridled vigour.

The scene had been set earlier in the day when the North Yorkshire Service Area team, wearing the Knights' kit, won a junior tournament at The Shay. Make no mistake, York RL is on a roll at present.

The match began uncertainly as Austin Buchanan dropped a bomb but Halifax blew the chance and the winger was thereafter supreme, showing his true class moments later with a 40-yard run only to be hauled down five yards short.

Nevertheless, York stayed in home territory and a penalty for holding down was despatched by Danny Brough.

Halifax soon erred again, dragging Scott Walker into touch when the tackle had been completed an epoch earlier. Simon Grix was sin-binned for dopey dissent - home discipline was dire throughout - and from the penalty Nathan Graham and Darren Callaghan saw Wood superbly make the corner.

The Aussie was central to the next forage upfield which ended with Brough dropping a goal, and York were quickly back on the attack again - though this time it resulted in a Halifax try.

Lee Jackson forced the play and his ambitious pass was picked off by winger James Haley, who raced the length of the field. Jamie Bloem converted and Fax were back in it despite having had no attack of note.

Yet another penalty, for reefing, saw Brough extend the lead and the little scrum-half thought he'd upped it further when he robbed Scott Grix and made the posts, but he had knocked on in the steal.

Bloem booted the hosts back to within a point, but minutes later Jackson atoned for his earlier error when he raced out to down the last-tackle kicker, and that set the platform for an attack which ended with Ball skilfully crossing.

A rare home offensive saw dangerman Phil Cantillon - otherwise not given a sniff all day - have a try disallowed as Graham and Wood forced him to knock on, while back at the other end more Ball brilliance saw Friend blast over, the conversion making it 21-8 at half-time.

Brough added two more penalties, for offside and kicking out in a scrum, and the Fax frustration was increasingly evident, not least when huge second-row Paul Davidson's mini-tantrum was met with hoots of derision from the visiting support.

Talking of which, 'Richard Agar's Barmy Army' excelled themselves. They made up more than half the 1,840 crowd and to say they out-sang the home fans would be a major understatement.

Radio listeners would have heard them - probably without the need for a radio - and at one stage a Halifax fan near the press bench held her ears and prayed for the away support to quieten. Sadly for her, the Almighty wasn't listening - or He simply couldn't hear her above the din.

Every tackle was saluted, every Halifax mistake was cheered and every Knights' try was met with gleeful mayhem. The players couldn't help but respond.

Halifax were not giving up, though, and forged a couple of attacks. The first ended when Buchanan made a bone-shuddering try-saving tackle, a head-on collision of ridiculous proportions, bouncing his opposite winger into touch.

The second ended with a converted Scott Grix try, but Chris Langley alone made sure the comeback was deficient with two tries in the last seven minutes.

The first bordered on the incomprehensible as he looked wrapped up ten yards out but somehow ploughed ever-onwards through three or four defenders and stuck a hand over the line, while for the second he pinched a home spill and raced 30 yards, Brough's eighth goal completing the triumph.

Two NL1 teams now sent packing, Hull KR probably won't be relishing the semi-final.

Arriva Trains Cup

Quarter-final

Sunday, June 6, 2004

at The Shay

Halifax: Scott Grix, Sheriffe, Roper, Simon Grix, Haley, Weisner, Jones, Farrell, Cantillon, Birchall, Davidson, Whittaker, Bloem. Subs (all used): Moxon, Corcoran, Bates, MacDonald.

Tries: Haley 15, Scott Grix 66.

Conversions: Bloem 15, 66.

Penalties: Bloem 26.

Drop goals: None.

Sin-binned: Simon Grix 7.

Sent off: None.

Knights: Graham 8, Buchanan 9, Langley 9, Wood 9, Walker 8, Rhodes 9, Brough 9, Wilson 8, Jackson 8, J Smith 8, Callaghan 8, Friend 8, Ball 9. Subs (all used): Cain 7, Ramsden 7, Briggs 7, Sozi 8.

Tries: Wood 8; Ball 29; Friend 39; Langley 73, 77.

Conversions: Brough 29, 39, 73, 77.

Penalties: Brough 5, 19, 46, 58.

Drop goal: Brough 10.

Sin-binned: None.

Sent off: None.

Man of the match: It was virtually impossible to pick a stand-out player in an outstanding team display - so we cheated. Half a dozen candidates went into a hat and two-try hero Chris Langley was picked out.

HT: 8-21

Ref: Peter Taberner (Wigan)

Rating: Not Halifax's best pal, but if they didn't foul he wouldn't have had to penalise them.

Penalty Count: 5-12

Gamebreaker: Scott Grix's try brought Fax to within two scores with 14 minutes left, but Chris Langley's improbable touchdown seven minutes later killed their dwindling hopes.

Attendance: 1,840.

Weather watch: hot sunshine.

Match rating: superb for the neutral, simply wonderful for Richard Agar's Barmy Army.

Updated: 10:21 Monday, June 07, 2004