YORK Knights are closing in on the levels of performance that Mark Applegarth has been hoping for, but he refused to be satisfied as he continues to chase success.
Recent performances have produced an upturn in form for the Knights, who have propelled themselves up the Betfred Super League table following six points from a possible six in their last three outings.
A narrow win over Castleford Tigers was added to by a 36-24 Magic Weekend win against Huddersfield Giants, seeing the Knights record back-to-back victories for the first time as a Super League side.
But they went one better on Thursday evening, as Applegarth’s team came from behind to beat Hull FC 20-16 at a sunny LNER Community Stadium.
Applegarth had come under pressure after York embarked on a run of six straight defeats, culminating with a 72-20 loss against Wigan Warriors.
And after demanding a reaction from his squad, he got exactly that with three wins on the bounce.
Applegarth still wants more from his players, saying on Thursday: “I think it’s an ongoing thing still.
“We showed some great defensive desire, but we need to be a bit more clinical in some of our execution individually.
“It’s always going to be an ongoing thing, but the main thing is that you get two or three points into each week that you can be chasing, and you are constantly spinning the plates, hoping the other things you haven’t touched on are still there.
“Naturally, you have to keep spinning plates and make sure they are all spinning as hard as you can.”
The Knights’ recent improvement in form has been down to the impressive performances of the players, but there’s another factor which has remained the same throughout.
Referee Tara Jones has officiated three of York’s last four matches, and came under praise from Applegarth for her performances, with the Knights boss recognising the difficulty of her job.
He credited: “One thing I’ll never do is put unforced heat on a referee, but it makes life easier when there are no out and out decisions where you think they might have got it wrong.
“We’re where we are at, we try to focus on ourselves and if we play the perfect game of rugby, then we start to look at officiating.
“They’ve got a tough enough job as it is, I think that Tara is an excellent referee.
“The best compliment you can give an official is the less you see them, the better game they tend to have.
“As a team, we’ve got a responsibility to make sure we’re playing the game in the right spirit, with the right element of competitiveness.”
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