‘We gifted it to Gateshead’ admits assistant-boss

1:03pm Monday 7th July 2008

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ASSISTANT-COACH James Ratcliffe watched his York City Knights side lose to Gateshead for the fourth time this season and then spared none of them from criticism – including player-boss Paul March.

The Knights were beaten 40-18 at the Thunderdome – their heaviest loss of the four to the high-flying Tynesiders – to remain in sixth place in National League Two, looking over their shoulders in the race for a play-off spot.

They have been missing several key players to injuries, so much so they travelled to the Thunderdome without an 18th man, but Ratcliffe refused to use that as an excuse.

Instead he blasted his team for giving away soft field position and then not defending their line as they conceded seven more tries, following the eight shipped in at lowly London Skolars last week.

“It started at the beginning. We’ve given them a 20-point start. We came out and gifted them 20 points. I don’t think they opened us up once, rather it was our mistakes,” said Ratcliffe, even though his side were still in the game at 20-12 down at half-time.

“We know what we’re capable of, but we came up far short. The discipline side of it included three penalties for dissent while we were in possession – including one by the player-coach. Five of their seven tries have come on the back of penalties in Gateshead’s half letting them come up the field and score points. I thought we played really poorly and that Gateshead were average. If anything we made them look good.

“It’s the middle of the park that’s let us down. We asked for a big effort in defence, but there was a switch-off. We’re lacking a bit as regards our defence. If we’re going to invite them downfield, we’ve got to defend your actions. If you’re going to give penalties away, defend it. If you’re not going to defend it, then don’t give penalties away.”

He added: “I’ve never seen a referee change his mind. Giving away three penalties for dissent is unacceptable. Those individuals will be brought to task this week.”

Ratcliffe was hoping David March and Mark Applegarth would return for next week’s game against Blackpool, while the Lee Mapals situation might also be resolved by then, the full-back/winger facing showdown talks tomorrow after being dropped for “attitude problems”.

“The team is bigger than any individual,” said Ratcliffe of that issue. “That will all get discussed. Everyone is equal and if you’re not training or committed to what we’re trying to do it will affect other people’s attitudes.

“It did not disrupt anything we did yesterday. Mark Wilson (the academy player) did a good enough job at full-back and Matt Danville did all right (on the wing) as well. Lee Mapals will get discussed internally and, hopefully, we can come to an agreement on how we can move forward.”

Ratcliffe was clearly frustrated by Mapals’ failure to train last week, especially given the team’s injury crisis.

“We only had 17 players (at training) on Thursday and we had only 15 able to train. We had no 18th man yesterday,” he said. “Some big players are out. The players we’ve got in are capable of doing a good job, but we’ve come up with wrong decisions in some areas, including at half-back.”

Ratcliffe intimated further disappointment at March’s display, but he said: “Paul’s trying to do too much. He’s doing it tough at the moment.”

He added: “The play-offs are still our goal. Confidence is low. It’s the first time we’ve lost three games on the trot this (NL2) season, and all three were winnable in our eyes. Now we need to get three results. It’s a matter of keeping people focused. It’s hard to work on structures when you’ve only got 11 or 12 players training. We’re doing it tough right now – but we will bounce back, I’m sure.”