JACK LEE insists York City Knights still have it in them to “get out of the predicament” they are in.

The Knights fell into the Kingstone Press Championship relegation zone last Thursday night after losing to Swinton, and slipped to the bottom of the table at the weekend when Hunslet beat Workington.

They have only four games left to save themselves, starting with the visit of arch-rivals Hunslet on Sunday.

Vice-captain Lee admitted the mood in the camp was downbeat after their seventh defeat on the bounce – but he rubbished suggestions certain players lacked desire and stressed the whole team would give their all for the sake of the Minster city.

“It’s a bit tough at the moment but the objective is to keep everyone’s spirits up,” said the hooker. “We know in ourselves we’ve got to stay up for the city.

“Everybody’s attitude is focused on staying up.“I think the quality is there, we just need a few tweaks while we’re playing. Hopefully we can get that soon. We need to win two out of the four games at least. It’s a predicament we need to get ourselves out of.”

Contentious refereeing calls have been a feature of some of the last seven matches.

Lee said: “We’ve lost some points I feel through refereeing errors and it gets frustrating as a player when stuff like that happens.

“But I’m fully confident we will stay up. All our ambition is on staying up. We are positive. Gary Thornton (head coach) is positive. We’re in a bad patch and we need to get out of it.”

Asked where he felt the team were going wrong, Lee said: “Maybe we need to focus on individual efforts, on beating their opposite shirt. I know if I’ve played better than the opposing nine (hooker) I’ve done my job. As a team we have to complete sets and be patient. I think there is some impatience in our team sometimes and we do daft stuff at certain times of a game. If we keep composed we’ll be all right.

“We had seven breaks I think in the second half against Swinton and we needed more composure to make them pay.

“It’s a young team, though, and inexperience maybe plays a part. I’m one of the oldest there and I’m 24. We haven’t had Jason Golden or his Super League experience all season because of injury and we’ve had (captain) James Ford only limited times.

“If you look at our overall age, you’re looking at an average of about 21. There are some regulars, key players, like Sam Scott and Jack Aldous, who are early 20s. Nathan Freer is 24, Matt Nicholson is early 20s. It’s a really young team.

“We didn’t plan to get those injuries at the start of the year and if those players had been fit we’d be top eight.”

In response to criticism from some fans that players lacked heart, Lee said: “Players do not play to fail. Comments like that are not what you want to hear. It’s support we want. No individual here would give up. Everyone is fully committed in the job they do. People have to keep going.

“There’s always something to fight for. Heads can go down on a bad run and maybe fatigue in a game can be a factor, but nobody gives up. We are totally committed. It’s a hard place to be at the moment but we have to pick ourselves up.”