YORK Knights head coach Andrew Henderson was left seething with what he described as his side’s “worst team performance of 2023” against Whitehaven on Sunday.

The Knights had been seeking to continue their fine Betfred Championship form and make it four consecutive wins against the struggling Cumbrians, but were instead second best across the pitch in a lacklustre 12-14 defeat at the LNER Community Stadium.

Substitute Daniel Spencer-Tonks crossed for his first Whitehaven tries to give his side a 10-0 lead inside the opening quarter of an hour, but though the Knights battled back to take a 12-10 advantage in at the interval, Curtis Teare’s 68th-minute effort was enough to seal the points for the visitors.

RECAP: York Knights vs Whitehaven

And with a trip to much-fancied table-toppers Featherstone Rovers next up for the Knights this weekend, Henderson’s side can seldom afford a repeat of their most recent performance.

“It was very disappointing from our perspective,” he criticised. “I’d have to go as far as saying that it was our worst team performance of 2023.

“I know that we’re a lot better than what we showcased, but for one reason or another, I just felt that we were a little bit off the pace. I just thought that we were flat, and I didn’t feel that we had that energy or enthusiasm that we’ve seen in the last few games.

“We certainly didn’t look like we were attacking the game as well as we would have liked to, both on the defence side as well as the attacking side.

“We looked loose in our play, loose defensively at times, and I just don’t think that we showed enough urgency or desire to win that game.”

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Thanks to “five minutes of fluidity” at the end of the first half, the Knights fortuitously led 12-10 at the interval, a scoreline Henderson was not sure that his side had performed well enough to deserve.

“We probably didn’t deserve to be 12-10 up, and we spoke about that at half time,” he said.

“We probably didn’t execute what we needed to execute well enough in that first half. I thought defensively we were off – we just didn’t have the same tackle management or marker play, and there was no kick pressure, they were allowed to kick so easily.

“We just didn’t have that bit of urgency or that desire that we’ve seen in this team, one thing that we’ve built ourselves on and prided ourselves on is effort.

“I didn’t feel like we had that consistently enough over the course of the game. You saw it in spits and spurts, but it’s that level of consistency, and we didn’t have that.

“I thought that we were very fortunate to be going in 12-10 at half time, but I did wrap the boys up to say that the way that we finished as strong as we did the first half, and to execute that, was fantastic.

“They had some areas to focus on in that second half, but we didn’t deliver on that. Times out there in that second half, whenever [hooker] Josh Daley got out of dummy half, everybody else was 10 or 15 metres behind the play, or missing the jump. We just looked a little bit lost and a bit devoid of ideas.

“We weren’t playing in the attacking shape or from the areas that we spoke about. Defensively, I felt that we were lacking a little bit of energy or a little bit of enthusiasm in those areas.

“We couldn’t build pressure. We had no problem going forward – and we made plenty of metres going forward – that wasn’t an issue, but when we got into the final third, we kept knocking on.

“Full credit to Whitehaven, they’ve come here with nothing to lose and no pressure on them – obviously they’ve been doing it tough over the past couple of weeks – but they just put in a real spirited performance.

“I don’t think Whitehaven executed anything fantastic that has outfoxed us or outdone us, I just think that they competed harder than us and showed more desire and willing.

“They scored three tries off kicks effectively, but they wanted to get to that ball more than us, they worked that bit harder off the ball, and they take full credit for their win.”