SHED Seven frontman Rick Witter is obviously used to taking centre stage but it says something about York City Knights ’ woes that they had to rely on him to provide the highlight of the Huntington Stadium action.

In fact the indie rock star shared that honour with a quartet of York City players who likewise were at yesterday’s Championship game against Leigh as guests of the club.

The five of them took part in the half-time entertainment and, for many of the Knights faithful, this brought the bulk of the smiles on a day when their struggling, injury-hit team, with marquee signing Paul King the latest to join the absentee list, suffered their heaviest defeat – 66-20 – since crashing 66-10 at the Centurions last August.

The “Celebrity Crossbar Challenge” was actually still going on when Leigh ran back out for the second period, and many home fans would’ve preferred for the half-time high jinks to continue rather than the game to restart with their side already 32-10 down and yet to play into the deceptively strong wind.

It was a sunny day, but the strength of that wind was obvious when the crossbar challengers kicked against it with their first attempts at hitting the bar from 40 metres, and then had a go with the wind at their backs.

Unsurprisingly, the bulk of the second half was played in home territory and the biggest surprise was that York, to their credit, found two tries from somewhere in the last five minutes to make the scoreline a tad more respectable.

The aforementioned wind had also been apparent at the start of the match when player-boss Thorman kicked a 40-20, from which York took an unanticipated lead, Jack Lee forcing his way over from dummy-half.

The muted cheers that greeted the try probably suggested the home faithful did not expect the lead to last, and sure enough Leigh hit back with tries by winger Matt Gardner, from a fine Martin Ridyard pass, and Ridyard himself, with a long-range interception after he’d picked off a Thorman pass.

However, at this early stage, the Knights remained in the game and, after one of Thorman’s trademark bouncing restarts was mis-controlled out of play, prop Adam Sullivan ran a fine line to blast over from Lee’s flat pass, Thorman goaling.

Good scrambling defence prevented Leigh scoring again from another counter-attack, but a smart kick by Ridyard forced a dropout and, from the next attack, full-back Gregg McNally darted in on the diagonal for a 24th-minute lead.

From there on, York did not have either the wherewithal, ability or enthusiasm to match the Centurions’ strength, pace and intensity, albeit not helped by some inconsistent calls from Wigan whistler George Stokes.

Knights assistant-boss Mick Ramsden was correct when saying the hosts’ failure to win the ruck – or even come close to drawing it – was arguably their biggest downfall. As players got sucked in to assist a tackle or to slow down a play-the-ball, so gaps appeared on the edges.

But missing tackles completely, like in the past few weeks, was as big a flaw, as was a failure to read plays and fill in holes accordingly.

When Ridyard bagged his second try of the day, the floodgates opened.

Tommy Goulden, from a John Duffy pass, and sub Craig Bristow, set up by hooker Anthony Nicholson’s dart, extended the lead before half-time and, after it, McNally finished a break from Ridyard, and Sam Hopkins finished a smart move, despite the efforts of York full-back Tom Bush to prevent the touchdown.

Bush, foolishly, was sin-binned for complaining too much about Stokes’ decision to award the score.

Andy Thornley brushed off weak tackles from otherwise hard- working props Sullivan and Jack Aldous to stretch over, and – after a lengthy delay when York’s Dave Sutton, promoted from the reserves along with Jack Stearman, was stretchered off unconscious – Nicholson scored a solo try.

Ryan Brierley crossed albeit after two forward passes, before the home crowd were given something to cheer – firstly as Stokes this time chalked off a Brierley try for a forward pass, and then when sub hooker Kris Brining weaved in excellently.

Leigh’s Rob Parker also had a touchdown disallowed before Kiwi forward Dario Esposito got his first try for the Knights after good hands from Thorman.

However, Leigh still had the last word through Stuart Littler.

For the record, Witter, City goalkeeper Michael Ingham and young midfielder Tom Platt were laughably off-target when kicking against the wind, and Platt was disappointingly poor with it behind them too.

Witter, on the other hand, went close, the ball bouncing over the bar, while Ingham hit an upright, albeit too high. Striker Jason Walker and midfielder Paddy McLaughlin were not too far away either, but no one scooped the £1,000 prize.

Laughs aside, the Knights could really do with some of City’s recent success with the round ball to rub off on them.

 

Match facts

Knights: Bush 6, Pryce 6, Sutton 6, Garside 6, Elliott 6, Thorman 6, Olds 6, Sullivan 6, Lee 6, Aldous 6, Davies 6, Smith 6, Clarke 6.

Subs (all used): Brining 6, Freer 5, Stearman 5, Esposito 6.

Tries: Lee 2; Sullivan 15; Brining 74; Esposito 79.

Conversions: Thorman 15, 79.

Sin-binned: Bush 52.

Leigh: McNally, Maden, Littler, Henderson, Gardner, Ridyard, Duffy, Ostick, Nicholson, Parker, Leuluai, Goulden, Hopkins 8.

Subs (all used): Brierley, Thornley, Briscoe, Spencer.

Tries: Gardner 6; Ridyard 12, 34; McNally 24, 46; Goulden 37; Bristow 40; Hopkins 52; Thornley 60; Nicholson 65; Brierley 70; Littler 80.

Conversions: Ridyard 12, 34, 37, 40, 46, 52, 60, 65, 70.

Man of the match: Jack Lee – worked hard in an 80-minute performance at hooker and, later, loose-forward.

Referee: George Stokes (Wigan) – certainly didn’t help York.

Penalty count: 4-7.

Attendance: 806.

Half-time: 10-32.

Weather: sunny and warm but with down-pitch wind.

Moment of the match: Kris Brining’s solo try from dummy-half was the pick of York’s four, although the game was long lost by then.

Gaffe of the match: either referee George Stokes’ decision to award Sam Hopkins’ 52nd-minute try when seemingly held on his back by Bush, or Bush’s decision to contest it and earn himself a yellow card.

Gamebreaker: three Leigh tries in six minutes before half-time killed any home hopes of a shock.

Match rating: a decent end-to-end opening turned into the expected easy win for Leigh.