YORK City Knights went into today’s Tetley’s Challenge Cup fifth-round draw after another nailbiting match at Huntington Stadium and a further fillip for proud head coach Gary Thornton – but the 30-28 victory over Toulouse was marred by new injury woe.

Neither hooker Jack Lee, described by Thornton as being “in the form of his life”, nor on-field organiser-in-chief Simon Brown appeared in the second half yesterday, the former due to an ongoing knee problem and the latter after suffering a recurrence of a back injury.

Winger Ben Dent also departed late on having tried to play on through a rib injury, and Nathan Freer, back in the side, suffered shoulder trouble, while Aaron Lyons and Adam Sullivan were again struggling with knee problems.

Thornton had said one aim, aside from progressing to the next round, was to come through the game unscathed, bolstering squad strength for the priority that is the Kingstone Press Championship, which continues with Sunday’s trip to arch-rivals Hunslet.

But these new injury blows put a downer on what was otherwise another exciting day for the Knights.

“We’re going to enjoy the win. It’s fantastic to get into the hat. But my main focus is and has always been the league and consolidating our position in the top eight,” said Thornton.

“We’ll have to see how they are. If the past is anything to go by, Simon Brown could be out for two or three weeks, which would be a blow, but we’ll see how they are.

“It was important to keep winning. That’s three on the bounce now. It’s important for me to get a winning culture and keep a winning culture. It’s a good thing to keep momentum going. I thought at one point we were dead and buried, but winning becomes a good habit. They showed a never-say-die attitude.”

The Knights had been 18-6 down in the first half. Thornton said: “We were struggling and lost both Simon Brown and Jack Lee. I was a bit worried, but this group of players have an awful lot of courage and guts and they dug themselves out of it very well.

“If ever a side needed a captain’s knock, it was (yesterday), and we certainly got one from James Ford in that second half. I don’t want to single anyone out, though. You can throw lots of names into it. Tom Carr got the sponsors’ man of the match, but there were some fantastic performances.

“Toulouse are a good team. Their six and seven (Aussie half-backs Johno Ford and Mark Kheirallah) were very good, they run hard and tackled hard. I think we’ve beaten a good side and that makes the win even more enjoyable.

“We finished the game with 13 fit players – Aaron Lyons went back on for Ben Dent near the end, when he was struggling with a knee problem himself – but it showed the team spirit. It was a fantastic effort.

“Ben caught a heel in the ribs and could hardly breathe, but then he came up with a smashing tackle. Everyone wants to play for each other. That’s what we’re getting. They’re a good group of boys here.”

Asked whom he fancied in the fifth round, Thornton, referring to the Knights’ home record of five wins and one narrow defeat, said: “Let’s hope it’s down here. I don’t think we’re frightened of anybody down here.

“Let’s hope it’s a big name that can generate a bit of income, and get the fans in, and hopefully put some cash in the bank.”