RICHARD Agar watched his troops stun former club Featherstone Rovers with an incredible Powergen Challenge Cup win and then declared: "You couldn't make it up."

York City Knights went into yesterday's tie with a squad decimated by injury and absences, and faced a National League One team gunning for revenge following last week's Arriva Trains Cup clash between the sides at Huntington Stadium.

History was also against the Knights as they hadn't triumphed at Rovers for 47 years, and the odds of a shock increased yet further when centre Aaron Wood was sent off after only nine minutes.

However, they won an amazing game with a last-minute Alex Godfrey try to book their place in the quarter-finals and a trip to Super League side Huddersfield Giants.

Agar - who has also been side-tracked this week by the birth of his son, James - said: "It was the most courageous, amazing display for sheer guts you are ever likely to see.

"They kept coming back and we looked shot to pieces, but that emphasises the spirit in the team. Even if we had not got the result I felt we had a moral victory.

"We've had an awful lot thrown at us this week with injuries and suspensions. But even for everything that's happened our preparation was excellent, partly because we played them last week and partly because the boys knew what we expected. Playing them twice helped because I got all my preparation done before this week and all that's gone on."

Agar, who had said before the game that his side had nothing to lose, added: "We're now the only National League Two club in the last eight and that's an amazing achievement for us. We've had three really tough, competitive draws but we're through."

The Knights' problems - they only had 15 available players on Friday - had forced Agar to call on former prop Rich Hayes to come out of retirement and back-row Danny Seal, who was expected to be unavailable for another four weeks, to put work commitments to one side. Both players had not trained with the team for more than a month.

"I'm very thankful to Richie for what he did, and also to Danny who came up from London to play," said Agar, who had kept their appearances secret but had hinted he "might pull a rabbit out of the hat".

"For Richie to put in a performance like that is awesome and Danny went to unbelievable lengths to play in this game."

Both players started the game and indeed Seal scored a try as York went 17-0 up before Featherstone fought back with the wind behind them to go in front after 67 minutes.

The Knights dug in to retake the lead with eight minutes left and, although Rovers immediately responded to edge ahead again as the clock ticked down, 12-man York dug even deeper to win it in the dying seconds.

Agar said: "All the time we were passing messages down to say, 'you will get another chance'.

"We always felt, even right on the bell, that we would get one more chance, and, credit to the players, they believed they would and they did. The character they showed to do it deserved to win any day.

"Firing play down the short side was a brave decision but Cainy (Mark Cain) got a one-on-one and Alex is a great finisher."

Agar, who became a father on Wednesday, added: "It has been an awesome seven days."

CUP CONQUEST MILESTONES

York's first win in Featherstone since 1957;

York's first Challenge Cup win over Featherstone since 1937;

York's first six-game winning run in one season since 1992;

York's first appearance in the last eight of the Challenge Cup since 1984;

York became the only National League Two side, and one of only two National League clubs, to reach this year's quarter-finals.

Updated: 11:21 Monday, March 15, 2004