YORK City Knights were 'nilled' for the first time in over a year as they were beaten 34-0 by a talented Leigh Centurions at the LSV.

A couple of tries from Liam Forsyth saw Leigh into the lead at half-time after a competitive first half in which York had held the hosts out for much of the 40 minutes.

Eventually though the Knights would understandably tire in the face of such pressure and four more tries followed in the second period.

To put the results into perspective is important too for York, who have faced two sides with full-time players in their ranks thus far, in Toulouse and now Leigh.

And while the Knights had to compete without the banned Connor Robinson, Leigh chose not to pick either Martyn Ridyard or Jarrod Sammut.

James Ford handed out three debuts, with Jimmy Keinhorst, Elliot Wallis and James Green all making their Knights bows, the latter from the bench.

The suspension to Robinson meant that Matty Marsh moved to scrum-half and Will Sharp took his spot at full-back.

Kriss Brining also made the 17 after missing the season opener at Toulouse with a knock. Brad Hey, Joe Porter and Danny Washbrook all dropped out.

It was a back-and-forth start to proceedings with neither side able to claim a grasp on matters owing to errors and a number of penalties being awarded.

The best chances of the opening 15 minutes to the half came off the back of penalties.

Danny Addy was only able to get a hand to a short pass to him metres from the York line.

Two quick-fire penalties then saw Tim Spears go close, though the ball came loose as he drove to the line in the face of a couple of defenders.

The crowd were soon sparked into life when Nathan Mason was forced off through a head knock, with the home supporters vehemently appealing for a trip as the prop look to break through the centre.

Ford spoke of Leigh’s threats on the edges in the build-up to this contest and it was there where the Centurions opened the scoring.

Leigh went down the right flank and Gregg McNally laid on the try for Liam Forsyth to dive over unopposed in the corner.

Minutes later, Leigh again attacked the right flank, this time from a kick.

Josh Woods hoisted the ball towards Forsyth who leaped higher than Elliot Wallis in the corner as Leigh showed their scoring capabilities.

Ben Reynolds managed to land the former but not the latter of the conversion attempts.

The momentum was with Leigh but York responded and were a pass away form conjuring their own score on the right side - Keinhorst’s pass finding the sideline rather than Jason Bass out wide.

That was as close as York came to scoring though they continued to exhibit their solid defence, pushing Junior Sa’u into touch and holding up Iain Thornley in the left corner before the half-time hooter sounded at 10-0.

Leigh were the second half’s early aggressors and thought they’d scored their third try eight minutes after the restart.

Cameron Scott - a loanee at York last year - dived over in the left corner but was unable to properly ground the ball by the flag.

Leigh continued to apply the pressure and again a former Knights loanee, Ben Reynolds, was at the heart of it.

The half-back hit a timely 40/20 kick to put Leigh within striking range, though Forsyth was denied a hat-trick by McNally’s forward pass.

With just under an hour on the clock, Leigh eventually got the score their performance had merited.

Reynolds won the penalty deep in York territory to pin the Knights on their line and it was his pass that sent Thornley through a gap. This time, the stand-off converted.

York remained undeterred and pushed on to avoid the nilling.

Marsh’s restart bounced backwards back into his hands and put the Knights on the front foot.

Will Jubb and Jack Teanby were both held up in the resulting set but Leigh remained strong enough at the back.

Leigh always remained in control and they put the result beyond any lingering doubt with 10 minutes left. Hood darted his way out of dummy half, burrowing his way to the smallest portion of the line.

With six minutes left, Hood went from scorer to provider, laying on a late score for Ben Hellewell.

One final try followed as Leigh racked up their 128th point from only their third league match.

Matty Wildie joined fellow hooker Hood on the scoreboard by darting through a gap.

Reynolds made no mistake with any of the three conversions.

Leigh: McNally, Scott, Thornley, Sa’u, Forsyth, Reynolds, Woods, Mason, Hood, Ioane, Hellewell, Glohe, Addy. Subs (all used): Wildie, Thompson, Bienek, Gerrard.

Tries: Forsyth (23, 27), Thornley (60), Hood (70), Hellewell (74), Wildie (79)

Goals: Reynolds (5/6)

York: Sharp, Wallis, Keinhorst, Salter, Bass, Johnston, Marsh, Baldwinson, Jubb, Clarkson, Jordan-Roberts, Scott, Spears. Subs (all used): Teanby, Brining, Green, Stock.

Tries: 0

Goals: 0

Attendance: 2,942

Referee: Scott Mikalauskas

York Man of the Match: Jason Bass. Made some good metres in the first half and always carried well from his own line.

Penalty count: 8-9