YORK City Knights boss James Ford stopped short of slamming the officials and instead bemoaned his own team's shortcomings after seeing arch-rivals Hunslet leave Bootham Crescent with vital League One points.

The Knights finished the game with 11 men after Mike Emmett was sent off and Tommy Saxton sin-binned amid a feisty finale as the Hawks ran out 33-12 victors to keep their top-five play-off hopes alive, the game having been up before frustrations boiled over.

Referee John McMullen was booed off by angry home supporters and Ford, whose team dropped to fifth with only a one-point cushion, bemoaned "inconsistencies" in the officiating and a "farcical" penalty count at the end, Hunslet getting nine free-kicks in the last quarter. But he said indiscipline was a key factor in the result, as were his side's errors and some misfortune, plus Hunslet's form.

Said Ford: "I think we need to acknowledge Hunslet, who were pretty good. Their completion was high and they did some smart things around the middle. Hats off to Matt Bramald - he obviously prepared his team well.

"We've lost five tries to three, and their first try (when Danny Ansell benefitted from a favourable bounce) was the most fortunate try I've seen in a long time. We probably should have scored (just before it) after Tyler Craig broke the line.

"The difference really was discipline. I'm not going to single out the referee or the touch judges - it's too easy an option to do that.

"There were 16 penalties in that second half and we've had a bloke sent off and a bloke sin-binned.

"I will be doing an in-depth review (of what we did wrong). I hope he (McMullen) gets that same kind of care and attention in his performance."

When pressed about the officiating, he said: "For the first 60 minutes there was no consistency in his decisions.

"They had six/seven-second play-the-balls then we get pinged for a six/seven-second play-the-ball. We were dominating rucks - apart from our right edge against Jake Normington - and we're earning the right to control the tempo. They're not, but the referee's interpretation was not where it needed to be.

"I will leave it there."

Saxton was yellow carded for dissent two minutes after Emmett was sent off, apparently following an alleged little stamp.

On that red card, Ford said: "I think the interpretation was persistent fouling. He's given away two penalties all game. That's a crazy red card surely.

"Mike's an aggressive player, a physical player and gets under people's skin, but it didn't look like a red card.

"The way the penalties racked up at the end was almost farcical.

"I would be surprised if he was to be given a ban."

On his team's display, Ford said: "Unfortunate errors and some really ordinary skill was backed up with a penalty count in key areas. We've got them penned back and they get a penalty on tackle five.

"We'll look at our ball retention and we lacked a bit of push at times, but I thought Hunslet were pretty good."

Ford's team opened the scoring early on with a try down their right but thereafter predominantly attacked down the other flank, to mixed success.

When asked about that tactic, Ford said: "We had looked at a couple of players we thought we would get some good yards out of and we got plenty of metres there.

"When Hunslet put more numbers over there when they needed to, that's when we should have shifted the ball the other way.

"But Matt Bramald was pretty smart. He moved Danny Ansell to the other side and it took my players ten minutes to realise he had moved sides.

"Realistically, we all underperformed. It happens. We need to make sure we have a good look at it and come back bigger and better for the London Skolars game (in a fortnight).

"We've got London then Doncaster on the Sunday and Thursday. If we win them we will go back above Doncaster. Then we'll have a tough ask to back up against Keighley. We want to win them all and finish as high as we can."