DAVE WOODS has the air of a man struggling to find the final answer to a particularly cryptic crossword.

His face after this 34-12 defeat told a story itself – an expression of both bewilderment and of fury at how his side served up such a desperately disappointing performance.

The answer to the puzzle seems as far away as ever.

Having taken two steps forward with Championship victories over Toulouse and Dewsbury and a creditable display in Challenge Cup defeat, the Knights took a giant leap backwards in Cumbria.

Error-strewn, wasteful in possession and playing without cohesion, they also seemed to lack the passion and commitment shown by their hosts.

For Woods, that is the greatest sin of all.

He had predicted his side could get a result at Barrow beforehand, believing there to be weaknesses they could exploit, but stressed his men needed to get into their faces.

They did not.

Until the latter stages, when the points were in the bag and Barrow could pull out some exhibition tricks, his pre-match predictions were pretty accurate.

Barrow were not brilliant by any means. That’s what makes this thumping so ultimately dispiriting.

After being rested against Hull KR, Woods thought he was bringing strength back into the side as assistant coach Chris Thorman, Dave Sutton, James Ford, Jack Lee and Duane Straugheir all returned.

Skipper Alex Benson chose to play into a biting wind in the first half but it seemed counter-productive as the Knights repeatedly spilled possession.

Their opponents were just as guilty but, just before the quarter hour mark, they strung enough phases together to take the lead.

First Liam Harrison made 20 metres on a broken tackle, before Adam Walker bulldozed his way into Knights territory. From there they found their fluency and, although lucky to pick up another six tackles after a deflection, they quickly took advantage.

Zeb Luisi passed right to Jamie Thackray and he smashed his way over the line, Jamie Rooney putting over a simple conversion.

Ten minutes later, Barrow doubled their lead.

It came from a Knights penalty which failed to find touch and Ned Catic’s clever off-load found Nathan Mossop outside him. He popped an outside ball into the on-running Liam Campbell, who strode through the Knights line on a diagonal to score.

It looked bad for York but, in the following ten minutes, they put together their most effective spell of the match.

It brought one try and nearly brought another.

After Barrow were penalised for offside on 36 minutes, Jack Lee gave Jack Stearman a quick ball close to the line and it was always a futile battle for the home defence stopping the big York lad in full flow.

Having halved the deficit, Thorman then thought he had provided the equaliser when his clever little kick was touched down by Anthony Thackeray – only for the try to be chalked off because the former Castleford stand-off was ahead of the kicker.

That deflated the Knights and they conceded a crucial score on the stroke of half-time.

Harrison, a constant danger, moved left and flashed through a tackle. Semi-stopped by Waterman, he was able to get the ball off to Matt James, who stretched and got the ball down over the line.

From possibly being 12-12, York went into the break with a 16-6 deficit.

The first score of the second period was crucial. Unfortunately for Woods, it went Barrow’s way seven minutes after the restart.

Gregg McNally was the scorer – collecting a Mossop pass and ducking under two Knights tacklers to finish.

If that wasn’t the game-breaker then Catic’s score on the hour mark – swinging through on the outside to crash past Thorman and touch down in the right corner – was definitely the end of the road for York.

They had been ragged before then as poor handling and loose passing repeatedly coughed up the ball to Barrow. But the realisation the Raiders had virtually won freed them further from the shackles. It appeared they could score at will.

Andy Ballard did, with 11 minutes left, finishing off a move involving Rooney, McNally and Harrison and although the Knights did score again – the always-trying Tom Bush off-loading superbly to give Mark Barlow the simplest of touchdowns – there was still time for Barrow to stamp their dominance on the match.

It was Ballard once more. Luisi foiled yet another missed tackle to find his team-mate standing there on his left just waiting for the ball to arrive.

Back to the drawing board for the Knights then and, with Batley next on Thursday, Woods will be hoping he can find the answers to that tricky question of consistency very quickly indeed.

Match facts

Barrow: McNally, Ballard, Larkin, Harrison, Backhouse, Rooney, Campbell, Butler, Mossop, Walker, Ostler, Catic, Luisi.

Subs (all used): Thackray, James, Knowles, Davies.

Tries: Thackray 14, Campbell 26, James 40, McNally 48, Catic 61, Ballard 69, 75.

Conversions: Rooney 14, 26, 48.

Knights: Bush 8, Sutton 5, Garside 5, Ford 5, Waterman 6, Thackeray 6, Presley 6, Freer 4, Lee 7, Benson 6, Esders 5, Straugheir 5, Thorman 4.

Subs (all used): Stearman 7, Waller 4, Barlow 5, Clark 5.

Tries: Stearman 36, Barlow 72.

Conversions: Waterman 36, 72.

Man of the match: Tom Bush – Stood firm and performed valiantly when all around were floundering.

Referee: Jamie Leahy (Batley). Rating: A little pedantic but decisions could not be blamed in any way for the Knights’ disappointing display.

Penalty count: 7-8.

Attendance: 1,271.

Half-time: 16-6.

Weather: A chilling wind which made it feel more like January than May.

Moment of the match: Bush’s off-load from the tackle close to the line, which set up Barlow’s try, was a rare moment of quality.

Gaffe of the match: Take your pick from any number of poor handling errors or penalties.

Gamebreaker: 16-6 down at half-time, the Knights had to score the first try in the second half. They didn’t and never looked like playing any further part in the match.

Match rating: Disappointing for the hardy Knights fans as their side didn’t turn up.