YORK City Knights boss James Ford revealed that Keighley’s star man admitted the Cougars’ late match-winning try in the iPro Sport Cup final should not have stood – but he refused to blame agonising defeat on that controversial call.

The Knights thought they had stolen the cup against the odds through Ed Smith’s wonderful 75th-minute try and Brett Turner’s conversion, but veteran playmaker Paul Handforth created a quick riposte for Charlie Martin to steal it back with two minutes to play.

Ford says man-of-the-match Handforth later told him Martin had not grounded the ball, but the Knights head coach remained pragmatic and admitted his side had perhaps been fortunate that an earlier James Feather try had been chalked off.

He also said his team needed to focus on their own mistakes which had left them with a mountain to climb in the first place, at 16-6 down.

“I spoke to Paul Handforth and he assured me that the ball was not grounded. He apologised to me,” Ford told The Press.

“It was difficult to see from where I was, but I respect Paul’s honesty.

“But I think we maybe got a bit fortunate with one of the others (Feather’s disallowed try).

“We have to focus on us. If we had not made the mistakes and if we had taken our chances, it would have been different.

“We fluffed three or four chances in the first half, and that’s with about 30 per cent of the possession.

“If you don’t take your chances you’re not going to win the game.”

He added: “We just need to regroup, stick together and keep looking to improve through our training, and hopefully we can turn Keighley over next time we come up against them.”

Ford admitted he had thought the game was won after Smith’s 75th minute try and Brett Turner’s third conversion had put them 18-16 ahead.

Earlier, captain Jack Aldous – playing a mammoth 80-minute stint in the engine room – had scored one and made another for Jonny Presley either side of Keighley tries by Paul White and ex-Knights Rikki Sheriffe and John Oakes.

Said Ford: “I spoke to Pat Smith (after Ed Smith’s try) and said to make sure we get the ball from the restart, see out the sets in the right areas and see the game out. Pat’s the man for the job in those situations.

“But we failed with the first objective and they won the ball back from the short kick-off.

“They put the ball in a good area and they got a little bit of fortune.”

He added: “We’re very disappointed. We’re frustrated.

“We had some remarkable performances on the way to the final but here too many errors put us under pressure.

“It takes a good team to concede that many errors and defend so much yet come close to winning a game. Maybe our naivety cost is a little bit.

“We will learn from it and hopefully come back better at the end of the season.”