Oh the joys of following professional sport in York.

Just a day after the city's football team slipped ever closer to the bottom of the Football League, so their rugby league neighbours followed suit with another inept display.

At least York Wasps are safe in the knowledge that relegation from the Northern Ford Premiership is not an option - if it was there would be a few worried faces around Huntington Stadium.

Because there is just no explanation for their repeated failure to pick up points against teams who they know they have the capabilities to beat.

Take yesterday's opponents. Featherstone are the form team of the NFP. They've now won five in a row, they're third in the league and they fancy their chances of going all the way to the Grand Final.

Yet for 95 per cent of a scrappy encounter there was no telling who was near the top and who was near the bottom. Indeed, until the last quarter of an hour it was still anybody's game as York trailed by just six points.

But as usual it was the lack of ideas in attack and the wasted possession which proved costly. They have now managed just 80 points in eight NFP games, a mere 10 points per match, though it's certainly not a lack of effort which is to blame. If anything they're trying too hard instead of doing the basics right.

At least the Wasps can take heart from a few positive notes. Captain Craig Booth, dropped last week, returned in style to score all York's points with two tries and two goals.

There was a welcome return too for Rich Hayes after three weeks out through injury. He got through some terrific work in defence, while alongside him hooker Gareth Dobson hardly put a foot wrong in a terrier-like display.

In fact all the forwards performed solidly in the face of a tough Featherstone pack which included former Super League players Maea David and Brad Hepi plus ex-York man Matt Lambert.

But there was little to smile about in the back division, despite some encouraging runs from wingers Matt Woodcock and Leroy McKenzie. Poor Andy Preston, preferred at full-back to John McCracken, had a nightmare while centres Rob Lee and Andrew Lambert were ineffective.

And half-backs Mark Cain and Darren Callaghan are still not firing on all cylinders.

Featherstone scrum-half Jamie Rooney looked a class above his opposite number Callaghan and was the one significant difference between the sides.

He scored one try, set up another, kicked four goals and a field goal but it was his all-round creativity and tactical kicking which provided the spark and must have impressed watching Halifax Blue Sox coach Gary Mercer.

It was his half-back partner Andy Bastow who provided the first try though. His superb one handed ball out the tackle freed Michael Rhodes and from his pass centre Matt Bramald cut inside Preston to score under the posts for Rooney to tag on the conversion.

In a rare moment of excitement for the home fans, Spencer Hargrave made a tremendous 50 metre break which was followed up by a weaving run by McKenzie but, in true York style, a poor kick on the next tackle meant the move came to nothing.

It took 23 minutes for the Wasps to finally breach the line when Booth ran onto Dobson's short pass at speed and knocked two players out the way to crash over from close range.

Rooney showed his pace as he streaked away from his own 20 metre line before being hauled down 10 metres short of the York line by Woodcock. But two plays later, with the defence still trying to get back, Rob Lee was sent to the sin-bin for tackling from an offside position.

Rooney slotted over the resulting penalty but within minutes York went in front for the first time. Callaghan sent a high cross-field kick into the Featherstone end zone and Booth rose above Rovers winger Anthony Slatter to pick the ball out the air and touch down.

Booth used the strong, swirling wind to curl the conversion between the posts and edge York two points ahead but then, three minutes before the interval, came perhaps the crucial moment of the match.

York were unprepared for Featherstone's short kick-off which they executed to perfection. It gave them possession in Wasps territory and, with Lee still off the field and Andy Hill down injured, they capitalised on their two man advantage for Rooney to cruise over the line unopposed.

The second half deteriorated into a series of errors as neither side could come to terms with the difficult, gusty conditions.

But it was Featherstone who made the best of it. Two minutes after the break they went further ahead when Preston let Rooney's high kick bounce and Jamie Coventry was on hand to collect and score the simplest of tries.

A Booth penalty midway through the half brought York back to within six points but any hopes of getting something from the match were quashed when winger Jamie Stokes took Hepi's fine pass and tore away to the line, handing off McKenzie in the process.

Rooney followed up the conversion with a field goal but by then it was immaterial. The chance of a rare win had already slipped away. It's a story that is becoming far too familiar.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.