YORK City Knights ended a run of two League One games without a win with a well-fought victory at Newcastle’s packed Kingston Park – Thunder blunders helping them go home with the spoils.

The ultimately comprehensive 36-4 result, in Super League’s Magic Weekend curtain-raiser, avenged a sorry defeat in the corresponding fixture last season, and left head coach James Ford a much happier man.

It could have been greater, too, but for a few more missed conversions after Tyler Craig – last Sunday’s late hero – departed injured. They also lost Ryan Mallinder to a suspected broken leg in an awful first-half accident.

The returns from injury, though, of Richard Wilkinson and Mike Emmett were notable here as York ground out victory in an at times scrappy match, while former Featherstone favourite Tommy Saxton made a try-scoring debut on the wing after arriving on loan from Halifax.

Brett Turner, replaced at full-back by Wilkinson, switched to the other wing, and ironically – given his blunder proved costly in the draw with North Wales Crusaders – he was the biggest beneficiary of Thunder’s goal-line gaffes, poaching two tries.

Wingers Ben Dent and Austin Buchanan had been surprise omissions, while on loan prop Ross Osbourne was the packman to make way from the side that pinched that draw on Sunday.

There were several York links in the Thunder line-up, meanwhile, with former Knights stars Peter Fox, who went on to gain England honours in a long Super League career, and Lee Paterson, the veteran former Scotland international loose-forward, starting against their home-town club.

Geordie ex-Knight Rhys Clarke and Harry Aldous – brother of York captain Jack – also started, the latter particularly impressive.

In addition to Fox, dual-reg Hull KR duo Kevin Larroyer and Liam Salter brought plenty of Super League experience to the home ranks for the Super League fans present.

Saxton so nearly gave York the lead, just unable to gather in Danny Nicklas’ low kick to the corner.

The winger’s old mate, Jonny Presley, however, did open the scoring.

After two penalties took York upfield, Presley simply went by himself, jinking through.

Tyler Craig converted – his last act of note before injury.

Two fouls by French international Larroyer on Josh Tonks – one a twist in the tackle around the neck, then a shoulder charge in the next hit-up – underlined Thunder’s desires, but they were not helped by a growing penalty count.

Tonks, meanwhile, ran straight and typically hard at Larroyer the very next time he touched the ball – which says a lot about York’s former Dewsbury second-row, who won their personal duel.

York, though, were not yet making enough of their extra sets, handling errors in the drizzle hampering progress.

The busy Saxton again went close, held up over the try-line after gathering Tom Reudiger’s fumble underneath a Danny Nicklas kick – pressure from Ed Smith forcing the error.

Reudiger quickly atoned when smartly collecting Nicklas’ low kick on his own line.

It wasn’t long before the Knights suffered another injury blow –Mallinder stretchered off.

That left the visitors down to two interchanges, but they soon extended their lead as Ed Smith – now at left-centre in Craig’s stead - latched onto Wilkinson’s little grubber.

The Knights were nearly caught napping at a quick restart after Saxton knocked the ball into touch when chasing a penalty down the sideline. The defence deserves credit for surviving.

And it was they who scored next, after a gaffe by home full-back Reudiger when fumbling a Jonny Presley field kick, Turner nipping in to score to continue his try-a-game ratio on the wing, Nicklas converting.

Reudiger quickly made amends, though, after the Knights failed to deal with the restart, darting onto Lewis Young’s reverse ball to cut the half-time deficit to 16-4.

Newcastle should have cut the gap again after a straight run by Young carved the defence open.

Reudiger wasted a big overlap and the goal-line defence again excelled.

It was soon rewarded thanks to another howler in the Thunder rearguard.

Larroyer tried to run the ball out of his in-goal area, going laterally, then passed to Fox. But the ball went to ground and Turner dived on it.

Two wonderful goal-line tackles by Wilkinson kept that 20-4 lead intact, the first on Young and the second from the play-the-ball.

Another home blunder gave York another try – a kick bouncing off Aaron Teroi’s chest straight to Tonks, who crossed.

Then when Pat Smith’s drilled kick ricocheted off a defender, Ed Smith gave Saxton a chance and he fought his way over.

After Nicklas and Wilkinson misses, Turner took over goalkicking and added the two.

And he did so again after the excellent Ed Smith cut through for his second try of the night.

MATCH FACTS

Newcastle 4 Knights 36

Newcastle: Reudiger, Brown, Salter, Parker, Fox, Young, Teroi, Rennie, Cook, Clarke, H Aldous, Larroyer, Paterson. Subs (all used): Simons, Moran, Kilday, Welsh.

Tries: Reudiger 40.

Conversions: none.

Penalties: none.

Sent off: none.

Sin-binned: none.

Knights: Wilkinson 8, Turner 7, Morland 6, Craig 6, Saxton 8, Presley 8, Nicklas 7, Spiers 7, P Smith 7, Aldous 8, Tonks 8, E Smith 8, Emmett 8. Subs (all used): Brining 7, Mallinder 6, Applegarth 8, Waller 8.

Tries: Presley 12; E Smith 33, 72; Turner 38, 51; Tonks 59; Saxton 65.

Conversions: Craig 12; Nicklas 38; Turner 65, 72.

Penalties: none.

Sent off: none.

Sin-binned: none.

Man of the match: it was one of those nights when there were several contenders, but Josh Tonks gets the nod after an almighty battle with dual-reg Super League second-row Kevin Larroyer – and coming out on top.

Referee: Sam Ansell (Huddersfield) – pretty good.

Penalty count: 5-9

Weather: okay... until the rain came to grease things up and hamper handling.

Half-time: 4-16

Attendance: 3,033

Moment of the match: it was the worst moment of the match – Ryan Mallinder suffering a suspected broken leg in agonising fashion, an injury which needed lengthy treatment on the pitch as he was strapped into a stretcher – but it also led to creditable sportsmanship from York-born former Knights captain Lee Paterson, the Newcastle loose-forward immediately demanding referee Sam Ansell halted the match, before himself seeing to the stricken player and leading the applause as the 27-year-old was carried off.

Gaffe of the match: for York, it was Tommy Saxton fumbling a penalty which wasn’t going to go into touch, into touch; for Thunder, there were several - Tom Reudiger, Kevin Larroyer and Aaron Teroi all cocking up to hand the Knights three tries.

Gamebreaker: A Newcastle comeback could not have been ruled out until Josh Tonks capped a superb display when benefiting from Aaron Teroi’s fumble to make it 24-4 midway through the second half.

Match rating: not the most magical of matches on this Magic Weekend curtain-raiser with the constant rain hampering handling, but it was a cracking return to winning ways for the Knights.