YORK City Knights fell to a heavy 40-4 defeat against promotion-chasing Leigh Centurions at the LNER Community Stadium.

Here are five things that we learnt from the game.

1. Two contrasting set of 40 minutes.

To describe York’s defeat to Leigh as a tale of two halves may sound like a resort to cliche, but it perfectly encapsulates the 80 minutes.

York more than matched Leigh during the first 40 minutes and, had their discipline been better, they could well have led rather than found themselves 6-4 behind.

Having not allowed the Centurions to cross the whitewash in the first half, after the restart the floodgates quickly opened as the visitors rattled off six unanswered tries.

In some ways, it should come as little surprise given that, in their previous outing, Leigh edged past Bradford Bulls 8-4 in the first half before rallying to finish as 38-4 winners.

That will be of scant consolation to the Knights though who too cheaply gave up possession and on three occasions were unsuccessful from restarts after conceding.

2. Lots of work still to do defensively

Having entered the match on the back of conceding just one try in the previous two matches, York's defence was receiving plenty of plaudits.

In the build up, head coach James Ford was keen to point out that the atrocious weather conditions had played a major factor in a lack of tries, for both sides, in back-to-back wins over Dewsbury Rams and Batley Bulldogs.

The head coach insisted that his side still had plenty of work to do in defence and so it proved against Leigh.

The fact that York conceded as many as four tries from Joe Mellor's close range grubber kicks will have been bitterly disappointing.

In the end, the defeat by 36 points was York’s biggest home defeat since 2013 and the largest at home since Ford took charge of the club.

3. Clear gap between Featherstone and Leigh and the rest

There were some question marks surrounding Leigh after suffering a 28-6 defeat away to fellow Betfred Championship promotion favourites Featherstone Rovers in round two.

Since then, Leigh have added to their opening round 50-4 win over Whitehaven with victories over Bradford and York.

Featherstone are still 100 per cent after four matches, continuing a long unbeaten run of league matches against English opposition which stretches back to the defeat they suffered to the Knights at Bootham Crescent in late 2019.

At present, Leigh and Fev do appear a level ahead of every other club. For York, the challenge is to finish at high as they can among the best of the rest.

4. No dream return for James Clare

After a past dual registration spell in 2015, Clare made his return to York on loan from Castleford Tigers.

Clare though saw a yellow card early in the second half and the Knights struggled to make attacking chances for their outside backs against the dominant Leigh after half time.

Whether Clare's stay at York is extended remains to be seen.

5. Changes likely for cup tie

York now have a break from league action as they host Newcastle Thunder in the Betfred Challenge Cup on Sunday (3pm).

After a tough start with matches against the likely top two, Ford indicated that he will hand chances to his young quartet of ex-Heworth youngsters Myles Harrison, AJ Towse, Toby Warren and Brad Ward this weekend.