YORK City Knights literally upped the pace in their challenge for the National League Two title yesterday after wearing down Keighley Cougars at Huntington Stadium.

The Knights nipped a potential losing streak in the bud with a 44-16 win over a weary-looking Keighley Cougars after speeding things up to tire out the NL1 old-boys after a pedestrian first half.

Cook made the most of his squad's fitness yesterday with tactics directly aimed at wearing down the Cougars with high-tempo play-the-balls and speed of attack.

He said: "Everything revolved around the play-the-ball speed. At half-time we spoke about looking at where the spaces were in the Keighley line, and also picking up the whole tempo when we were in possession."

The key to the plan was the fitness of the players and Cook later praised Knights' conditioner Colin Sanctuary (pictured right) for making his side one of the fittest in the league.

Sanctuary has been working with the squad since pre-season and his efforts were particularly evident in the heat of yesterday's win as the Cougars visibly faded.

"Our blokes are in very good condition," said Cook. "Colin Sanctuary works them very hard. If someone's not fit enough to execute the game plan they can slim down or bulk up and the best thing is the players like him."

The Knights came close to recording a second-half shut-out over the Cougars but conceded an 80th minute converted try and Cook admitted he was disappointed with the late lapse.

He said: "I was a little but disappointed, especially as it was in the last minute of the game.

"It would have been nice but unfortunately it wasn't to be. We will just take the two points and look ahead to the next game."

There is still a long way to go to keep the current lead at the top of LHF National League Two and Cook was quick to play down the achievement in terms of the bigger picture.

His side travel to fifth-placed Swinton, who lost 23-20 at Workington yesterday, in one of the key games of the season next Sunday.

Cook said: "Swinton is going to be a greater challenge than what we faced yesterday. Swinton will still be thinking they can come back and win this competition. They have got a lot of good players and they are a dangerous side.

"We understand the challenge and the importance of being consistent.

"Some of the performances we have had lately haven't been what we were capable of and we knew we had to get back to that level.

"This next block of games and part of the season could go a long way to seeing how things will turn out at the end of the season."

Updated: 11:08 Monday, July 04, 2005