A MUCH-CHANGED York RUFC team fell 32-10 at Bradford & Bingley, the West Yorkshire side avenging defeat at Clifton Park earlier in the season.

While it was a disappointing result, the scratch side showed plenty of spirit away to one of the better teams in the league.

Nevertheless, the Minster city side, who had started the campaign so promisingly, have now won only once in their last five outings and have dropped to ninth in North One East, with victory over bottom placed Consett on Saturday now becoming vital as they peer over their shoulders at the relegation scrap.

Bradford & Bingley collected York's kick-off well and immediately set about their game plan which was to spread the ball quickly with driving support play.

York were defending for the first 10 minutes when scrum-half Toby Atkin was penalised in or around a maul which York seemed to be winning. B&B's number nine, Lance Taylor, converted the relatively easy kick.

From the restart, the Bees again spread the ball well and when York were penalised for not rolling away, Taylor made it 6-0.

When York were finally awarded a penalty, Liam Hessay found a lovely touch only for the ensuing lineout to be lost. Losing lineouts was to be a recurring theme.

The game, however, was becoming more balanced with York's rejigged scrum settling down and Hessay putting in some useful tactical kicking.

However, the Bees continued to try to run good ball and finally the York tackling failed as Stefan Roguski got through under the posts for a try converted by Taylor.

York began to show their resolve and some attacking intent with George Davies and Rob Hodges prominent. When the Bees were penalised on the ground, Hessay kicked the three points to cut the deficit to 13-3.

Hessay then collected the restart and found an excellent touch which initiated some strong York attacking. Hodges was stopped just short and the Bees were again penalised. York opted for the scrum and exerted some serious pressure before Shane Goulding burst through the cover tackle and scored under the posts. Hessay converted and it was 13-10.

However, from the restart and resultant lineout, there followed some loose play in which York were again penalised. The quick tap put York’s defence under pressure and, with the last play of the half, the Bees crossed wide out for a try which was converted well for a 20-10 interval lead.

The second half began with both sides still committed to the attacking game but errors were beginning to creep in.

Knock-ons, forward passes and lost lineouts led to a period of disjointed action, made worse for York when they had Darren Rutherford sin-binned for pulling down a maul.

With the extra man, the home side used a lineout drive to cross in the corner.

Frustration was building in the York ranks as they felt decisions were going against them, but nevertheless the pressure being applied by B&B was leading to an inevitable imbalance of penalties.

It was no surprise therefore when the York defence buckled and the Bees scored a converted try under the posts.

With Rutherford back, the York scrum began to exert a dominance which in turn saw a curious last 10 minutes as York opted three times for scrum penalties rather than kicking to the corners.

This pressure saw the home number six sin-binned, but, even with that numerical advantage, York could not breach the line, an unfortunate knock-on two yards out denying them a consolation try with the last move of the game.

Meanwhile, in Yorkshire One, lowly Selby notched a vital victory, beating Keighley 24-20 to leapfrog Old Rishworthians to fourth-bottom. Selby have this weekend off.