It's hard to believe it but York Acorn had Super League wannabes Hull KR on the back foot for a time.

The Blue and Golds rolled in with four solid sets before one-time KR man Darren Callaghan slotted over an impish drop goal on nine minutes to take the lead.

Robins coach Justin Morgan later told the National Conference division one promotion hopefuls that he had been worried.

But it was the celebrations and the ironic "easy" clap of the York supporters that was the most memorable - although the KR mob returned it with relish minutes later with no sense of decency nor humour as a full-strength Hull side ran riot.

Acorn had been practising their at least two-on-one tactic all week in training and used it to perfection to hold onto their lead for six glorious minutes.

After that, the flash of embarrassment at being beaten to the scoreboard ignited the drive for Hull KR and they cranked their try machine into gear.

Hooker Ben Fisher ducked under the Acorn barrier on the fourth attempt for the first on 15 minutes, and within three minutes Acorn were down 12-1 as Leroy Revitt palmed off two would-be tacklers to set Gareth Morton up for the first of six conversions.

Mistakes crept in as the multi-manned school of tackling sapped energy and left gaps on the wing for Jon Goddard to exploit three times.

Goal-kicker Morton also nabbed a hat-trick with his third coming in stoppage time to spoil the handicapper's 56-point prediction.

Sub Michael Smith threw a couple into the party, his first stemming from a penalty deep in the Acorn danger zone. His route was blocked - typically - by three York shirts but his arm stretched out and over the try line.

Inevitably it came down to a measure of strength. Acorn's one-man challenges were bounced off, even from pack powerhouse Adam Endersby and three-men attempts frequently failed to wrap the offloads while every Hull hand-off was perfectly placed.

Tommy Gallagher's unstoppable 24th-minute try had two Acorn men sprawled in his wake and Revitt's second saw his trail of destruction include Johnny Waldron out towards the 20-metre line before darting over.

This was always Acorn's cup final and they got to play it at their own pseudo-Wembley with turf so new it resembled laminate flooring.

But despite the admission of defeat in the first ten minutes, Acorn weren't content with a one-point doggy bag. They wanted their try and wholeheartedly deserved one.

An off-colour Johnny Waldron chased down a long punt forward with the score at 46-1 but couldn't get a grip on the pick-up a yard away from the elusive Robins line. Matthew Embleton dived in behind him to keep the ball alive and then a Callaghan grubber scribbled out a fresh invitation but the ball beat Waldron into touch.

Sixteen minutes later, Callaghan sent an even nicer kick into the same area. Waldron got his hands to it, applied pressure, and the ball touched just outside the back of the end zone.

Callaghan won the ball inside the Hull 40 and weaved a path to the right-hand side where Gareth Lloyd was waiting. He had Steve Irving on the overlap but went himself and was forced into touch four yards from the line by two defenders.

Easy it wasn't. But Acorn lived up to the challenge.

Rovers coach praises rivals' effort

Hull KR coach Justin Morgan told York Acorn how much they had concerned him in the opening exchanges of yesterday's Powergen Challenge Cup third round match.

The respected coach of the full-time outfit went into the Acorn dressing room after the game and admitted credit was due.

Player-coach and man of the match Darren Callaghan, who dropped the goal to put Acorn into a shock ninth-minute lead, said: "We aimed to just keep them under 60 and we were just unlucky to get 62 at the end. But we all still performed well and tried our best and that was all we could do.

"Justin's come in after the game and said at some stage he thought they were on the back foot so we were chuffed with our performance.

"Last week they put 50 up on a professional side so the lads have gone well really."

Callaghan replayed his field goal, saying: "We had a good four sets completed and every time we got up there the lads said let's go for it, let's go for the drop goal.

"It was just to get a point on the board really because we knew it was going to be a tough task ahead. It gave us a bit of a celebration because we didn't think we'd score many points and it was for the fans too."

Joint head coach Alfie Hill agreed. He said: "The first 15 minutes were really enjoyable. We said if the referee doesn't give us a penalty let's get a drop goal if we get down there and get the crowd buzzing - and we did."

He added: "We're really proud of the lads today. We set ourselves a target of 60 so we were still there in the last minute. There was no try and we wanted to score one but I'm so proud of the lads, they did very well.

"We will have learned a lot from them and hopefully the players won't forget it and we can take it into the rest of the league fixtures."

Match facts: Hull KR 62, Acorn 1

Hull KR: Revitt, Steel, Couturier, Goddard, Williams, Murrell, Webster, Stephenson, Fisher, Tangata Toa, Morton, Netherton, Gallagher.

Subs (all used): Price, Smith, Joseph, Aizue.

Tries: Fisher 15; Revitt 17, 38; Goddard 20, 32, 79; Gallagher 24; Smith 48, 61; Morton 51, 54, 80.

Conversions: Morton 16, 17, 20, 24, 79, 80; Couturier 51.

Penalties: None.

Drop goals: None.

Sin-binned: None.

Sent off: None.

Acorn: Mt Embleton 7, J Waldron 7, Mk Embleton 7, Lloyd 7, Irving 7, Hill 7, Callaghan 8, McTigue 8, Frank 7, Endersby 8, Morrow 7, Willits 8, Lee 8.

Subs (all used): Elliott 7, Burns 7, S Waldron 7, Caldwell 7.

Tries: None.

Conversions: None.

Penalties: None.

Drop goal: Callaghan 9.

Sin-binned: None.

Sent off: None.

Man of the match: Darren Callaghan

Used his experience to help his side win the respect offered by Justin Morgan and the Robins with a quality kicking game, solid defence and a never say die approach to leadership.

HT: 32-1

Referee: Matthew Kidd (Castleford). Rating: Fair, consistent and generally up to speed - a nice surprise.

Penalty count: 11-8

Gamebreaker: Ben Fisher's try after back-to-back sets deep in Acorn territory opened up the floodgates.

Moment of the match: Darren Callaghan's cheeky ninth-minute drop goal.

Attendance: 1,748

Weather watch: Bitterly cold with driving snow. Seriously arctic.

Match rating: A clich from start to finish but a match to highlight the magic of the Challenge Cup. Where else would you get a drop goal with the scores at 0-0?

Updated: 10:15 Monday, March 13, 2006