YORK City Knights player-coach Paul Broadbent has admitted his job could soon be on the line if results do not improve.

His side have now gone four games without a win in National League Two following yesterday's 38-26 loss at unbeaten leaders Keighley Cougars.

The former Great Britain star is under no illusions that if the poor run continues he might be forced to move aside - something which he admitted to the Evening Press would 'break his heart'.

He also said stepping down as coach but continuing as a player would not be an option, should it come to that.

"The club have created a good image off the field and we've got to get it up and running on the field," said Broadbent.

"I'm 100 per cent committed to what we're trying to do at this club but if the time comes that I've got to step aside for the club to carry on its progression and development then so be it. When you've gone four games and the team have under-performed, this is bound to be in your mind.

"I feel I've got the support of the people running the club but they've got to make sure that what they're turning out on the field is a successful product.

"I'm not naive enough to think they will sit there and sit there. If they see things aren't working for the sake of the club I will have to step aside. It would break my heart to do that because I want to make a success of this."

He added: "We've got a lot of issues to look at. We're working really hard as a club to get it sorted out, and I still feel we can turn the corner."

Broadbent's team let themselves down yesterday with a miserable 20-minute spell in which Keighley built up an unassailable 26-0 interval lead, which meant the Knights' fightback was in vain.

"We don't help ourselves as shown by the fact three of their first half tries came from us giving them passageway down the field through penalties or whatever," said Broadbent.

"Everything you do has a consequence, whether it be positive or negative. If you're doing things that aren't positive then it starts to take its toll.

"In the first 20 minutes we were in the game but then we went through a 20-minute period where we were giving them piggy backs and they were smart enough when they were down there to catch us out.

"Let's hope we learn from what we did in the second half, when we started to do positive things consistently and scored points."

Broadbent reiterated that his team needed to show more respect for possession.

"We're not playing with enough confidence and we don't seem to be getting into the right areas of the field to be able to open teams up.

"And then if we've not been there for a while we get a bit impatient," he said.

"The way we came back was a positive and although the players are feeling pretty low we've got to use what we did in the latter stage as a springboard to creating some confidence and playing with the same flair and endeavour that we were five weeks ago."

Updated: 11:11 Monday, May 12, 2003