Knights' work ethic proves to be ‘outstanding’ (From York Press)

Knights' work ethic proves to be ‘outstanding’

10:26am Monday 8th February 2010 in

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MICK RAMSDEN hailed York City Knights’ “outstanding” team spirit after watching the new-look side kick off their season with a wonderful 13-12 win over Leigh Centurions.

Player/caretaker-coach Chris Thorman won their opening Northern Rail Cup game with a drop goal three minutes from time, to shock the Championship big-guns after they had fought back from 12-2 down to level the scores.

Assistant-boss Ramsden, though, while happy to hail the former Super League star’s contribution throughout the gripping encounter, was quick to laud the entire team – saying victory was down to their desire to work for each other.

“It’s a while since I’ve seen a York team put in a performance of such grit and determination,” he said.

“The team spirit that has developed within this squad is superb.

“It’s come naturally to them, they’re such a good set of people. They’ve worked really hard for each other.

“It’s been building up in pre-season and it was outstanding yesterday.

“Leigh were getting a roll-on at the end and we were getting a bit tired, given the amount of defending that we’d done, especially on our own line. It took a lot out of our players but they’ve dug in deep.

“They kept their legs turning over and throwing their bodies in front of the Leigh attackers. They wanted to do it for each other and that’s the main thing.”

Leigh pushed for a winner, even after Thorman’s one-pointer and even after the final hooter, keeping the ball alive in broken play.

“The last few seconds were a bit crazy but we managed to hang in there,” said Ramsden.

“It was a bit scary. There were players all over the field. We deserved to win the game and it would’ve been bad if it had gone the wrong way in the dying seconds, but the lads got their legs turning over and managed to get the ball dead.”

Thorman, in addition to the winning strike, had also set up both of York’s tries, both of which were scored by Mike Mitchell.

Ramsden said: “Chris shows a lot of composure.

“He’s obviously played at the highest level in world rugby and in some cases he’s a couple of steps ahead of us but he always does the right play at the right time.

“He seemed to take an age to attempt the drop goal and it only just crept over. It wasn’t one of his better ones but they all count.”

Leigh boss Millward lamented his side’s handling errors and low completion rate, which was less than 50 per cent.

But Ramsden countered: “Our defending was fantastic. We were up in their faces and making them make errors.

“We’ve told the players that when we put teams under pressure when we’re defending, they will make errors.

“We were fairly composed with the ball and we completed a fair percentage of sets. Some of our finishes were all right, although we occasionally pushed the ball too much in the tackle.

“I can see a lot of improvement too, on our ball retention and ending our sets.

“Defence-wise we’ve been going well but we can still improve it. But on the whole it was very positive.”