CHRIS THORMAN lauded his side’s defence last night as the best he has seen since coming to the club.

Assistant-boss Mick Ramsden hailed the team’s spirit and character in the immediate aftermath of the 30-22 Northern Rail Cup win over Swinton at Huntington Stadium, which made it two wins from two at the start of term.

Player-boss Thorman, after watching a re-run of the game on video, echoed those sentiments and also heaped praise on their collective defensive effort.

“In the first half we defended as well as I’ve ever seen a York side defend,” said the Geordie, who arrived at Huntington Stadium ahead of the 2010 season.

“Swinton scored a try from a kick which, from watching the video, was offside. The one mistake we made in defence in the half led to their second try.

“The line defence was excellent. Systems are in place for it to work, but you still have to follow out those systems, and everyone has to do the same thing and have the right attitude - and I thought we were really good with that.”

Thorman was not as happy with the ball-play his side displayed, but he was quick to glean positives, not least the four second-half tries in a 21-minute match-winning salvo.

“We kept giving them the ball back, either with an error, a dropped pass or a penalty. But for us to be able to do what we did in the second half, after absorbing so much pressure in the first half, was great,” he said.

“To be able to turn it round and score the tries we did is a real positive sign for the future.

“It shows we’ve got the mentality to tough it out and that we are fit enough. I was really pleased with the commitment and the attitude.”

Waine Pryce is to have a scan on his injury - a quad problem, not a turned ankle as initially reported - which he suffered when scoring the Knights' opening try.

He is ruled out of Sunday's game against Gateshead, while Ben Hellewell, who came off last night with concussion, is a major doubt.