MARK Applegarth hailed a “ruthless” York Knights as they sailed into the 1895 Cup semi-finals with a dominant 39-6 win against Widnes.
The result was seldom in doubt as York simply blew away their opponents in a performance as sizzling as the sunshine on their return to the LNER Community Stadium after a fortnight on the road.
Widnes, who had made a bright start to the 2025 season, showed little of the quality that has earned them fine wins against Toulouse, Sheffield and Doncaster as the Knights’ power, pace and intensity starved them both of possession and field position.
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Applegarth believes a blistering opening quarter laid the platform for his side, enthusing: “I’m really pleased.
“I think the most pleasing part of those first 20 minutes was how we went about our defensive application.
“We knew the threats that Widnes had, and we know how dangerous they can be as a team so it was really important that we set our defensive standard where it needed to be.
“I thought that first 20 minutes is probably the most ruthless we’ve been with it and that’s probably what got us that start in the game.
“We knew that Widnes would come back into it, and I thought after 20 or 25 minutes they did start to get a bit of a foothold in the game. But I thought we showed great character to turn that back around.
“It was a good, ruthless, scoreline from us, but we won’t get carried away. It’s a cup game and it’s all about the 80 minutes.
“We were really good, and I thought Widnes had a bit of an out of sorts day. Allan won’t be too pleased with certain aspects of their game.
“But we’ll enjoy tonight and then get back focused on trying to climb that league ladder next week against Doncaster.”
And though Ryan Ince brought the Vikings onto the board midway through the first half as they began to steady the ship, the impressive Kieran Buchanan added his name to the scoresheet seconds before half time to put York 22-6 up.
The hosts had to wait until midway through the second half to add to their tally further through the ever-industrious Jordan Thompson, with Galeano scoring his second and Jack Martin fending off four defenders to touch down as the game slipped further out of Widnes’ grasp.
Harris’ last-minute drop-goal then put the cherry on top for the Knights, who moved one win from Wembley.
York have been on the receiving end of such a performance – notably in their Round One drubbing at Oldham – with Applegarth insisting his side will not get carried away.
“The quick start’s exactly what we’ve spoken about all week. But it’s alright chatting about it, it’s a different thing delivering it, isn’t it?
“We’ve learned a couple of tough lessons with that ourselves this year. My mind goes back to Oldham in Round One, they did exactly the same to us, didn’t they?
“We’re starting to look a bit more like what we want to be about, but at the same time there’s still a lot more in us, so we’re not going to get carried away.
“We’ll enjoy today, I thought it was a really clinical and ruthless display, but this game’s got a funny way of bringing you back down to Earth if you’re not willing to do that work every week.
“We’ll enjoy it, and we’ll look forward to that semi-final, but we’ll be fully focused on the league campaign again next Sunday.”
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