Distraught but proud summed up York Wasps' heartbroken players as they were edged out 2-0 by Hull Kingston Rovers in a remarkable match at Craven Park.

Just one penalty by Rovers' Chris Charles 13 minutes from time was enough to leave the Wasps still seeking their first win of the Northern Ford Premiership season. That kick summed up York's for-tunes as incredibly they were not awarded one penalty by Wigan referee Peter Taberner.

The rarity of that statistic was reflected by Wasps coach Lee Crooks who said: "It's the first time I've been involved in a match where a team has not had one penalty.

"I don't think the referee's had a par-ticularly good game. He allowed players to lay on and they did it a lot better than we did."

The result could have been so different had Wasps' stand-off Chris Allen taken the right option when a try was on the cards in the first half.

But instead of passing to Darren Hughes which would have virtually guaranteed a try, he ran at Rovers full-back Andy Taylor and was tackled.

Crooks reflected: "I'm disappointed in re-spect that we've lost a game we deserved to win. We've put the effort in but it's about taking chances and we had one clear cut chance and bombed it.

"We've also had a couple of half chances that we could have done better with. "We've got some distraught lads in the dressing room and I'm upset for the play-ers. But we've got to keep working. I've talked about improving every week and I think we're doing that at the moment.

"The league table says we've played two and lost two but we're a better team than that. We've got to learn from these mis-takes and use it as a spur for the rest of the season."

Despite the result, Wasps' captain Alan Pallister was delighted with the effort of the team.

He said: "We're gutted but I thought we played really well. Everybody gave 100 per cent. We played too much in our own half in the first half and a lot in our own 25 but the defence was brilliant. We could just do with a bit more in attack."

Pallister, who turned 30 last week, has taken the captaincy in his stride in his Testimonial year. Although still without a win, he is confident that will come sooner rather than later.

"The team spirit is very good. The differ-ence this year is that people want to win. I think we lost a bit of that last year. Winning is a habit and we weren't in that habit last year," he explained.

"I'm enjoying being captain. The lads seem to be listening - I think I've got a bit of respect from them. I've also got a lot of help from Paddy Handley who does a lot of talking and Jamie Benn does a lot from the back."