YORK City Knights coach Mick Cook may be forced to go in search of a half-back if his crippling injury list does not improve.

Cook was pleased to see his patched up Knights outfit hold their nerve to beat Hunslet Hawks 16-14 - but only after having to fend off another second-half fight back from the South Leeds side at the John Charles Stadium.

The Knights showed a host of changes from the team which beat Barrow a week ago and they picked up more knocks in yesterday's Co-operative National League Two clash.

Nathan Priestley lasted just 12 minutes and the inspirational Rob Spicer, along with Jamaine Wray also picked up bangs in the Knights' second win on the spin. But it is the problem at stand-off and scrum-half which continues to worry Cook the most.

"Rob Spicer has come off. We've got some bumps and bruises and Jamaine's got a groin injury, but it's not a good part of the club at the moment, the injuries," he said.

"We've had 12 players unavailable for this week's game - obviously we lost both half-backs last week with knee injuries and Adam Sullivan, who has been our most consistent prop for the year.

"He was a big loss and we've done a pretty good job after losing both our half-backs and putting two guys in who are not regular (in the positions).

"There's a little bit of adversity but we will have to look at the situation on these knee injuries. If things don't improve - and we've got some more checks to do on them tomorrow - we may have to look and see if we can get someone in at specialised half-back.

"You can get by on one or two games, I think, but you can't beat having players in your team that are born and bred in that position. We'll look at it tomorrow and we will see how the boys come up this week."

On the Hunslet display, Cook admitted he had a sense of déjà vu in the face of the Hawks' second-half come-back - remembering the 19-14 loss at Huntington Stadium in April as Hunslet fought from 14-4 down yesterday to level at 14-14 with 20 minutes left in the second half.

But he said: "Credit to the players, they are pretty happy. We haven't played particularly well and we have given a lot away, but we've hung in there and we've ground out a win against a team that grinds out wins a lot.