HEAD coach James Ford had said pre-match that York City Knights’ trip to Kingston Park would give a good indication of how far they had come in the past ten weeks.

As it was, it suggested they had regressed in the space of seven days.

They were up against a Newcastle Thunder side who had come from behind to beat them 38-24 in the iPro Sport Cup at Clifton Park in mid-March, handing Ford his first defeat since taking the reins.

On the face of it, therefore, the scoreline of 32-14 in this Kingstone Press League One meeting suggests little movement. But the match was very different – York leading the first one until late on whereas they only started playing this time until the last quarter.

The change from last week was even more marked.

On paper, the Knights names were pretty much the same but this was not the same side that had torn apart South Wales.

Newcastle are clearly a much stronger team than those sorry opponents, who allowed York to play with a smile on their face. But even accounting for less space, fewer holes in front of them and much stronger tackling, the Knights were considerably less fluid, at least until opening up after the game was lost.

More notably, they lost the ball in simple hit-ups, too, cheap turnover handing Newcastle a big advantage in the opening half.

They were often second best in contact, as well.

Any presumed progress or regress for either side is not quite as clear-cut as a scoreline suggests, of course, especially given that both teams were much-changed from their previous meeting.

York, for their part, had eight players ruled out.

But Newcastle showed ten changes from that day in March – missing many of their stellar names including overseas stars Jason Tali, Charlie Wabo, Mark Mexico and Jordan Meads. Which must be a concern for Ford.

Another worry is that this result continues the Knights’ record this year of beating relative minnows but losing to teams expected to be in the promotion mix. That fight for a play-off place has just got harder again.

It seemed before kick-off that Ford had included a last-minute signing, with the press bench frantically trying to find out more of Josh Jones, named on the teamsheet in the second row.

It was actually a misprint, and the man in question, Josh Tonks, duly opened the scoring.

Harry Carter had set the position with a sneaky one-on-one ball steal in Thunder territory, and Pat Smith delivered the scoring pass.

However, the hosts hit back immediately after a similar cheap turnover from the restart, dual-reg Hull KR winger Macauley Hallet crossing in the corner on his debut.

Another cheap turnover, this time Ben Dent not taking a Jordan Howden pass which was behind him, gave Newcastle more good position.

Their other winger, Louis Sheriff, received the ball in too much space, Dent bought his dummy, and Sheriff ran in.

Another cheap turnover and a penalty handed the hosts another chance. Ex-Knight Ryan McDonald dragged men in, the defence didn’t hear Tyler Craig’s shouts for more cover on the right, and Sheriff had a walk-in try.

Matty Beharrell goaled all three from out wide and it was 18-4.

It wasn’t as if Newcastle were being particularly fluent and clinical themselves, just stronger.

They got a bonus on half-time, too, as Beharrell kicked in between full-back Dent and winger Craig, chased it and had the ball jag back on the bounce straight to him.

The conversion from under the posts made it 24-4.

Ford’s men had to score first after half-time and thought they had done when Pat Smith’s kick bounced through defenders and Craig touched down - but the winger was called offside.

Up the other end, Sam Bowring held off Tonks and his offload saw scrum-half Matty Marsh run in, Beharrell goaling.

Even York’s best move of the match ending in disappointment as Jack Aldous scampered through only for his offload to Brad Nicholson to be called forward.

It got worse as Craig was flattened by a huge hit from Sheriff who made sure he wouldn’t get up by flopping on him. Craig did eventually get up but had to depart with concussion.

Sheriff had a hat-trick try ruled out rightly for a forward pass, before York hit back from a scrum in the red zone.

Greg Minikin made it and Lee Waterman finished it.

York by now had opened up and it brought them more joy when, from another scrum, Liam Cunningham scythed through lazy tackles, Ben Dent goaling.

However, they had no more glee and a Beharrell penalty sealed the result.

 

Match stats

Newcastle: Kain, Sheriff, Blair, Brown, Hallet, Beharrell, Marsh, Barron, Simons, Martins, Welsh, Craig, Clarke. Subs (all used): McDonald, Stamp, Fewlass, Bowring.

Tries: Hallet 7; Sheriff 15, 27; Beharrell 38; March 45.

Conversions: Beharell 7, 15, 27, 38, 45.

Penalties: Beharell 75.

Sent off: none.

Sin-binned: none.

Knights: B Dent 6, Waterman 6, Minikin 8, Cunningham 7, Craig 6, Howden 5, P Smith 6, Applegarth 7, Carter 6, Aldous 6, Tonks 6, E Smith 6, Mallinder 6. Subs (all used): Glassell 5, Nicholson 6, Pickles 5, Canterbury 6.

Tries: Tonks 4; Waterman 60; Cunningham 70.

Conversions: B Dent 70.

Penalties: none.

Sent off: none.

Sin-binned: none.

Man of the match: Greg Minikin – the centre continued his fine form both in defence and when causing the hosts problems when in possession.

Referee: Tom Crashley (Wakefield) – allowed a few slow play-the-balls but didn’t miss much.

Penalty count: 5-11.

Half-time: 24-4.

Weather: clear.

Attendance: 2,557.

Moment of the match: Josh Tonks’ early try lifted the hopes of the travelling York fans.

Gaffe of the match: all the cheap turnovers in the first half.

Gamebreaker: York, 24-4 down, had to score first after half-time but Tyler Craig had a try ruled out and Newcastle went up the other end for Matty Marsh to make it 30-4.

Match rating: it was a disappointing first hour in general, York only showing any fluency in the final quarter. It was not the kind of magic with which the Knights had wanted to kick off Super League's Magic Weekend in the North East.