YORK Acorn ARLC’s revival came to a shuddering halt when they turned in a below-par display against visitors Hull Dockers.

The 23-16 defeat saw the Blue and Golds sucked back into the relegation scramble near the foot of the National Conference premier division.

The home side had started brightly at Thanet Road, taking the lead on six minutes.

Scrum-half Scott Rhodes went on an arcing run and fed winger Steve Mackley, who raced around the back of the posts for a try. Kyle Palmer kicked the conversion.

However, it took Dockers little more than a minute to level after Acorn failed to deal with the kick-off. Martin Johnson crossed for the visitors and stand-off Chris Stephenson added the extras.

They then forged ahead on ten minutes with a try from Callum Birch. Stephenson added the extras.

The nightmare continued for Acorn on 14 minutes when centre Karl Ulyatt cut through down the right-hand side to score third visitors’ third try in seven minutes.

The Hull side powered further ahead on 26 minutes when poor Acorn defending out wide allowed winger Robbie Smith to nip over for an unconverted score.

That made it 20-6 but the home side hit back on the stroke of half-time by virtue of a Palmer penalty.

Acorn began the second half strongly and, on 44 minutes, they cut the deficit to 20-14 with a superb try by Joe Budd to which Palmer added the extras.

However, the game started slipping away from Acorn when influential play-maker Rhodes was sent off in the 52nd minute after an altercation.

A 55th minute penalty goal from Palmer trimmed the Dockers’ lead to four points, but that was as close as the home side got.

Man of the match Andy Gargan, prop forward Lee Frank and second-row Steve Ramsley all starred in defence for Acorn.

Dockers rounded off their scoring with a 65th minute Stephenson penalty and a drop goal from Andrew Kay with five minutes left.

Heworth’s division one trip to Thornhill was postponed.