YORK City Knights may have been battered and bruised but they took another giant step towards the Betfred League One title thanks to an ultra-tense 10-6 win over Oldham – in yet another game that went down to the very last play.

In a season of fine margins for both teams, it was no surprise their clash at Bootham Crescent should go to the wire - just like the reverse match in March which came down to one conversion and the width of a post.

And, while nerves were once more shredded in the stands, it should be no surprise either that this Knights team prevailed again.

It is now officially a habit.

This was the seventh time this season that James Ford’s troops had won by four points or fewer, and the ninth time the luckless Roughyeds had lost by eight or fewer.

Both showed why they are two of the best defensive outfits in the competition – and the Knights showed why they are on the verge of the crown, still two points ahead of Bradford Bulls with two games left.

There might have been only three tries in the 80 minutes, but this was gripping stuff – right up until Ash Robson shepherded the ball dead to herald a 13th straight win.

Oldham boss Scott Naylor, needing victory for their own play-off scrap, made three changes to the side that easily saw off Coventry last week.

Danny Rasool (knee) was injured and fellow back Ben West and forward Luke Nelmes left out. In came fit-again Kyran Johnson, normally a full-back but used on the wing, centre Matt Reid and half-back Dave Hewitt, with Gareth Owen reverting to hooker.

Ford, meanwhile, had hinted at changes to the side that edged another humdinger at Workington seven days earlier, but he kept the same 17.

Backing up that battling win with another against a Roughyeds team known for their relentless style was never going to be easy. Indeed, warning signs came 24 hours earlier when third-placed Worky, having emptied the tank last week, lost 50-22 at Newcastle.

This York team, though, are made of table-topping stuff.

The opening was, as expected, unremitting - both teams crashing into each other, both getting to kicks.

York has the edge territorially, and Oldham cracked first, 16 minutes in.

Ben Cockayne kicked high to Oldham’s left corner, where winger Lee Kershaw, hitherto good under the high balls coming his way, fumbled under pressure from Robson and Joe Batchelor.

Sam Scott, quickly on the scene, hacked the ball forward and smartly picked it up and dived over the whitewash.

York forced the next chance too, pressure from their defensive efforts deep in the visitors’ half seeing Reid throw a panic pass out of bounds.

Home skipper Tim Spears then won a penalty and Connor Robinson, whose touchline conversion attempt earlier had curled just wide, this time made it 6-0 with the two-pointer.

The relentlessness returned, punctured only by some misfortune for the hosts when Cockayne reversed the play and cut through a gap, only for ref John McMullen to give the visitors a penalty for obstruction.

The next time they cut through, they scored.

Spears fed Joel Edwards and the Aussie got a top-drawer pass out of the tackle for Robinson to sprint diagonally to the corner.

The scrum-half, one of the heroes of the season, missed the touchline conversion – but that try, making it 10-0, proved decisive.

It was far from easy, though, and York immediately made it harder still when a misunderstanding between Cockayne and Joe Porter under the restart gave Oldham a rare first-half set in the red zone. They quickly got another attacking set when Batchelor fumbled.

Both times, winger Robson came up with wonderful plays to quash the danger.

Firstly, he took a brilliant take under a dangerous bomb, and then, when he and Cockayne had to rush out to suppress an overlap, he rushed back to intercept a scoring pass.

Oldham had the edge at the start of the second half – but gave York a huge let-off.

Matt Wilkinson so nearly broke through, denied a try only by a superb Scott tackle.

A penalty followed but the usually superb Danny Langtree inexplicably dropped the first pass.

Oldham soon had a let-off, too, though.

Josh Jordan-Roberts and Harry Carter excelled in helping York take play to the other end where Carter was taken out off the ball chasing a Cockayne grubber. It was right in front of McMullen but the referee missed it.

McMullen, having a worse second half than first, soon also penalised Matty Marsh for tackling a man in mid-air – even though the full-back had challenged for the catch.

But the Knights’ defence, as so often this season, was up to the task, and soon the unremitting nature of play returned.

Up stepped McMullen again.

After his touch judges had spent all day missing forward passes, the referee pinged the hosts for a flat ball when they brilliantly breezed through with an in-out move straight off the training ground.

McMullen made some amends when ruling out an Oldham try for obstruction after full-back Luke Hooley had run behind his own man into the corner.

However, four consecutive penalties, most of them questionable, had Oldham camped on York’s line and the hosts finally cracked on 71 minutes as Jack Holmes scored.

The second half had featured more handling errors than the first as the teams tired and York at times had been grateful for the Roughyeds’ mistakes when looking well set.

But there could now be no more slip-ups and Ford’s men, despite the growing pressure, duly saw out the remainder of the game in similar style to that at Workington – albeit not without one or two scares.

The last came as the clock ticked into the 80th minute and Oldham, again pinned back, began their final set.

Fittingly for the game, a ludicrous forward pass was somehow missed by the officials and, as the hooter sounded, the ball was still alive.

It all came down to a hopeful punt forward but the excellent Robson, just like he had done last week at Workington, was there to see the ball go dead.