DAVE WOODS slated his York City Knights side for making life difficult for themselves against relegation rivals Dewsbury – but declared his utmost pride at the way they clawed a thrilling victory from the jaws of defeat.

Left-winger Dave Sutton scored a stoppage-time try to equalise at the Tetley’s Stadium, and stand-off Chris Thorman kicked a brilliant conversion from the touchline to seal the spoils in the Co-operative Championship six-pointer and spark wild celebrations on and off the pitch.

The result, completing a double over Dewbsury, saw the Knights leapfrog the Rams out of the relegation zone and also go above Hunslet into eighth place.

Woods said: “It was tense – but we made it tense. We were our own worst enemy, but I really congratulated the players for going right to the death.

“We made it so hard for ourselves. We had two tries disallowed but instead of being patient and keeping the ball at the line we tried to sneak the try and knocked-on. Then they score from some kicks rather than breaking us.”

The Knights led 18-4 three minutes before half-time but two home tries cut the gap to two points at the interval and the Rams scored two more to go 26-18 up.

Woods said: “We shouldn’t have gone in with that small lead – we should’ve been well in front.

“In the second half they played a lot of one-up stuff but they out-enthused us and they got a few penalties and a bit of a roll-on.

“But I’m really proud of the blokes – the way they fought to the end was great. They deserved the win in the end.

“In the second half we weren’t doing things right that we wanted to do. But it’s tough. We’re both towards the bottom of the table but we’re in a better position than them because we’ve been playing some decent footy recently and they’ve been struggling.

“They were enthusiastic, though, and we weren’t the same as we have been over the last few weeks. We were still good. We made a few breaks that we didn’t finish, but we did battle right to the end.”

Asked if he found it heart- stopping, Woods said: “It was frustrating more than anything. We always thought we could win it – though we didn’t expect it to be as late as the last minute.”

Woods said the crucial decision to give Thorman the last-gasp conversion – even though Tom Bush’s left foot had booted four goals from four attempts up until then – was made on the sidelines.

He explained: “We got a message on to give it to Chris because it was on that (left) side. It was easier for a right-footer. He put it over very nicely.”

That left-hand side had brought three of the Knights’ five tries on the day, including Sutton’s decider, and, while the 21-year-old winger again made a few individual errors, Woods was happy with the way his partnership with former Widnes centre James Ford – The Press’ man of the match – was developing.

The head coach said: “They’ve been doing lots of work. Sutts is still a young kid. He made a few mistakes after doing a lot of good things, but he finished that try really well. They made inroads and scored some really good tries over that side.”

Woods was also pleased with on-loan prop Jack Aldous’ contribution on his debut off the bench.

“Nath Freer and Alex Benson (starting props) were good early on – Nathan was great – and Jack did some good stuff,” he said. “He carried the ball strongly and got in some good shots. He’s got to get used to how we play but he did all right.”

Winger/full-back James Haynes left the fray at half-time after feeling a recurrence of neck pains that kept him out for 11 matches earlier in the season but he was optimistic of being okay for Friday night’s match at home to Batley.

Woods admitted his late decision to put Dennis Tuffour – recently returned from a loan spell at Hunslet to make his first appearance since early March – on the bench proved lucky given the winger was a natural replacement for Haynes, and added his players now needed a good week to recharge batteries after this pressure-cooker of a match played in searing heat.

“That would’ve taken a lot out of them – it was very hot out there,” he said. “We need to be sensible with them.”