Newcastle Thunder 16 York City Knights 26

Newcastle: Ritson, Agoro, Brown, Egodo, Calland, Young, Shaw, McAvoy, Simons, J Aldous, Luckley, Ollett, Fitzsimmons. Subs (all used): Clarke, H Aldous, Rennie, Pointer.

Tries: Egodo 22, 43; Fitzsimmons 80.

Conversions: Shaw 22, 80 (2/3).

Penalties: none.

Sent off: none.

Sin-binned: none.

Knights: Moss 8, Cockayne 8, Oakes 6, Normington 6, Mazive 8, Marsh 6, C Robinson 8, Johnson 6, Ellis 7, Horne 7, Batchelor 7, Scott 7, Spears 8. Subs (all used): A Robinson 7, Ronan Dixon 6, Porter 7, Jubb 7.

Tries: Ellis 8; Batchelor 29; Mazive 46; Moss 76.

Conversions: C Robinson 8, 29, 46, 76 (4/4).

Penalty: C Robinson 40 (1/1).

Sent off: none.

Sin-binned: none.

Man of the match: Connor Robinson – super with the boot again and capped his display by setting up the try that sealed victory, scored by Kieren Moss.

Referee: Billy Pearson (Dewsbury) – Newcastle got their fair share of calls yet he was still berated by a few noisy home supporters every time a decision went York’s way.

Penalty count: 9-8

Half-time: 6-14

Weather: pleasant enough.

Attendance: 800 est

Moments of the match: the first followed the gaffe of the match (below). Newcastle coughed up the restart following their second try and, from the scrum, young winger Judah Mazive broke a tackle and sped to the try line to reopen the gap to 20-10. The second was Kieren Moss’s try that sealed the victory half an hour later, courtesy of some wonderful footwork by Connor Robinson.

Gaffe of the match: It was either a mistake by Jake Normington, losing the ball when running out of defence, or referee Billy Pearson, waving play on instead of penalising Newcastle for ripping it out. Either way, it set up Thunder’s second try as Tuoyo Egodo collected the ball and dived spectacularly into the corner to get the hosts back into the game.

Gamebreaker: Newcastle might have been 20-10 down for most of the second period but they spent most of it in York’s half and were thus very much in the game. The tackle on Lewis Young to force the error at the whitewash prevented a comeback, and victory was later sealed when Connor Robinson brilliantly danced through the home defence and sent Kieren Moss home to make it 26-10.

Match rating: Knights boss James Ford said in the build-up that his team were still a long way off where they want to be with ball in hand. They duly proved him correct in the second half with a plethora of cheap turnovers. However, they yet again defended wonderfully, both in their structure and their effort, meaning the four tries they got were more than enough for another victory. Should they click, they could be some team.