MAY has been an awful month for the Knights with four defeats from four but on a personal level it’s not been too bad for Jonny Presley.

The 28-year-old claimed a second man-of-the-match accolade from The Press in last week’s defeat at Featherstone, and he has also now won the Player of the Month award voted for by readers. He has also jumped right into the reckoning for The Press Player of the Year award.

The May gong was backed by head coach Gary Thornton, especially given the testing times.

“Jonny’s tried things,” said Thornton. “That’s one of the things at times we were lacking.

He’s been prepared to go at the line, even it means taking a clout from time to time.

“He’s tried to invent things or spruce things up when we’ve not been in the best of form.

“He’s worked hard to try to get us going. I would expect that from him anyway. You want that.

“We’re not playing off a lot of go-forward in the middle at the moment because we’re lacking a bit of size and power up front, so the pivots are having to work off slow play-the-balls, so under the circumstances he’s done as well as we could expect.”

Presley has risen to top spot in the Player of the Year standings, thanks to the three bonus points garnered by winning the May gong, allied to two maximum three-point hauls from twice being man of the match.

The players to pick up player of the year points since the last update three games ago are listed.

At Catalans: Jonny Presley 3, Ben Dent 2, Kriss Brining 1.

Against Doncaster: Sam Scott 3, James Ford 2, Jack Briscoe 1.

At Featherstone: Jonny Presley 3, Sam Scott 2, Jack Briscoe 1.

The Press Player of the Year standings: Presley 14pts, Carr 12, Sullivan 11, Scott 10, Aldous 10, Lee 9, Nicholson 8, Ford 8, Briscoe 6, Brown 5, Hadley 3, Lineham 3, Lyons 3, Smith 2, Golden 2, Bowden 2, Dent 2, Elliott 1, Potter 1, Kent 1, Brining 1.