10:24am Monday 22nd March 2010
By Peter Martini
MICK RAMSDEN admitted York City Knights’ stoppage-time victory over South Wales Scorpions was far from great – but he was happy to hand the reins back to James Ratcliffe after six wins in eight games in his absence.
Assistant-coaches Ramsden and player/caretaker-boss Chris Thorman have been in charge since the eve of the season, after Ratcliffe was suspended for two months for racially abusing a member of the public while coaching the York College team.
But the boss returns to training on Thursday with his side in the quarter-finals of the Northern Rail Cup and now top of Championship One after two wins and a bonus-point loss in the three league games to date – Thorman having been the match-winner yesterday with a late drop goal to down the league newcomers.
Ramsden said: “A win’s a win. It didn’t look too pretty, but we got the points and that’s the main thing.
“We really wanted to get six wins out of eight for when James comes back. I think that’s quite a good position for him to come back to.
“It was important we got two wins in the league. I can’t even think about what it would’ve been like if we lost this one. But we got there.”
Ramsden reckoned Ratcliffe’s return comes at a good time.
“We had that great (Northern Rail Cup) win over Leigh at the start of the season and we thought we were looking good, but we’ve been hot and cold since. We’ve got a lot of work to do to get where we want to be,” he said.
“James will be back and we’ll be thankful for his input. It’s been a tough eight weeks without him and the lads have worked hard.
“But James will freshen it up a bit and we’re looking forward to that.”
Ramsden, like Thorman, has had an extra workload in Ratcliffe’s absence.
He said: “It’s been a rollercoaster really.
“It’s been enjoyable and a good experience for both me and Chris.
“He mentioned in The Press on Saturday that he’s learned quite a bit about himself and the lads, so it’s not been a bad thing.
“But with James back next week, it will be like a fresh start and we’re looking forward to it.”
Ramsden believes the Knights now need to find confidence to kick on.
“We’re confident we’ve got a good squad but sometimes we maybe do lack a bit (of confidence) – but the players shouldn’t,” he said.
“We got the win and we had to do it pretty tough. We’ve got take the win and push on.”
They “did it tough” as they lost Paul Stamp to a back injury, Danny Ratcliffe for 25 minutes to concussion, and also saw Casey Bromilow sin-binned for ten minutes, all in the opening quarter. Bromilow’s yellow card was the Knights’ fourth in four games.
He added: “I was more impressed with South Wales than I thought I would be. They had strong players. They’re not a bad side and they will get better as the season goes on.
“We didn’t perform like we wanted to. We didn’t attack the right places. That’s probably a lot to do with South Wales – their defence was strong and the line speed was pretty good and put us under pressure.
“I always thought we would be there or thereabouts at the end, but we didn’t need to make the mistakes that we did.
“We certainly gave a bit of excitement.
“In that respect it was a pretty good game for the neutral and in the end good for the York fans that we got the win.
“I’m expecting to see us improve a lot over the next few weeks.”
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/trade_directory/
