Betfred League One: York City Knights 24 Newcastle Thunder 6

Knights: Robson 9, Oakes 8, Batchelor 9, Hey 8, Mazive 7, Cockayne 8, Marsh 7, Hawksworth 7, Maskill 7, Dixon 7, Kelly 7, Scott 8, Porter 9. Subs (all used): Carter 8, Walne 7, Johnson 7, A Robinson 8.

Tries: Robson 27; Scott 38; Oakes 68; Marsh 75.

Conversions: Robson 38, 68, 75 (3/4).

Penalty: Robson 79 (1/1) Sent off: none.

Sin-binned: Carter 52.

Newcastle: Young, Agoro, Brown, Craig, Dent, Brook, Shaw, McAvoy, Pointer, J Aldous, Luckley, Ollett, H Aldous. Subs (all used): Cator, Gowing, Rennie, Fitzsimmons.

Try: Dent 24.

Conversions: none (Shaw 0/1).

Penalty: Shaw 35 (1/1).

Sent off: none.

Sin-binned: Luckley 52.

Man of the match: Ash Robson – it wasn’t so much what he did with the ball but what he did without it. Playing at full-back with the defence on the rack, he covered so much grass, joining the defensive line when needed, pulling off tackles, organising from the back and scrambling wherever and whenever required. Then again, he also scored York’s first try, set up the second, kicked four goals and found the energy to help superbly create Will Oakes’ 68th-minute touchdown that had the Knights’ heading towards victory.

Referee: Steve Race (Wakefield) – he wasn’t popular with York fans but he just about kept control.

Penalty count: 8-10

Half-time: 10-6

Weather: very hot and sunny again.

Attendance: 1,212

Moment of the match: after almost half an hour of backs-to-the-wall goal-line defence, manly effort after manly effort in repelling the Thunder, the Knights somehow found the energy to score a cracker. After Brad Hey’s sprint down the left, the ball was switched right where Ash Robson seemed to take a pass one-handed yet still ship it out in one movement to Joe Batchelor, whose hands were similarly quick to provide Will Oakes with the try.

Gaffe of the match: after withstanding set after set on your own line, the last thing York needed was to give Newcastle any more ball in the red zone. But the Knights did that more than once, Dan Hawksworth guilty on one of those occasions in the second half.

Gamebreaker: given all the work they had done in defence throughout the entire second period, the game was still far from over even when the Knights scored to go 16-6 up with 12 minutes left. However, their fourth try – courtesy a lucky rebound allied to quick thinking and quick feet – did put the contest out of Newcastle’s reach, at 22-6 with five minutes left.

Match rating: this was more edge-of-the-seat stuff, especially when injury-hit York’s line was being pounded as they dug deep, found mental strength and reserves of energy from somewhere, and held onto their slender lead for most of the second half before sealing victory with late scores. Coming through the other side of such an encounter, with four of their generals sidelined, underlines this York squad’s promotion credentials.