JAMES FORD insisted that York City Knights were not “a million miles away” in their 24-16 home defeat to Barrow Raiders and could have stolen the points “on another day”.

York’s winning streak ended at four matches as Jarrod Sammut and Ryan Shaw braces ensured that sixth-placed Barrow took a surprise win over the Knights, who remain third.

The hosts were never ahead in the match and fell short of the high standards seen in the 40-16 win at Whitehaven last time out.

Despite that, head coach Ford stressed: “I don’t think that we were a million miles away. We had a number of half-chances and on another day we steal another game.

“But we didn’t and you’re not going to pinch every game that is in the balance. We need to focus on us and learn from that.”

With two solo tries and a magnificent kicking game on show, Sammut was the stand-out player.

“At the start of the game and at the end of the game, he came up with two pieces of individual brilliance,” rated Ford on the half-back.

“I thought Barrow played pretty well, completed at a very high level, kicked consistently well and didn’t give us a lot.

“I thought we made too many errors, gave away too many penalties, which stopped the game getting into a flow and I think we’re at our best when the game is flowing.”