YORK City Knights head coach Mick Cook will expect his side to raise their performance next time out in a bid to end the nail-biting finales of their last two National Two matches.

A 78th minute Chris Levy drop goal was the difference between a win and a draw after trailing Hunslet Hawks all match in a game that echoed last week's near miss at Gateshead.

And Cook is well aware of the need to do better.

He said: "We have got good standards here and when they do play below standards they feel it.

"We know there's something more to come and the players know they're a better side than they showed in the first half.

"We know where we are going and we know we dropped below our standards.

"The end result of the game is only two points but the performance in the middle still matters to us. We are aiming to get the performance better and still get the two points."

Both Neil Law and Lee Lingard overcame early slips to justify the decision to sign them up until the end of next season, Law providing the quick pass to release Lingard for the first try on the half hour mark.

Scott Rhodes and Matt Blaymire were the others to cross and skipper Levy scored the all-important drop goal to seal the narrow win.

Said Cook: "He wasn't put back on specifically to get a drop goal because we had others on there who could kick it in Scott Rhodes and Paul Thorman.

"I sent the message down to him to try and get a grip on the game - as much as you can when there are 12 other guys out there - because I felt we were lacking a bit of patience.

"But he went on and gave us enough control to get the field position, set it and get the drop goal.

"It's not luck - it was a quality kick. In this game, luck is the bounce of the ball because you're not sure which way the ball is going to go.

"You have to make your own luck sometimes and we did that by preparing the ball and setting it right."

The 17-16 victory kept the Knights in second place in National League Two on points difference.

Swinton, 30-12 victors at Keighley are top with ten points from six matches but both York and Dewsbury, who won at London Skolars on Saturday, have the same playing record.

York don't have a game next weekend because it is the Northern Rail Cup quarter-finals.

Their next match is against bottom club Blackpool at Huntington Stadium on Saturday, June 4. That match has been brought forward from Sunday to avoid clashing with the finals of the York 9s competition.

Updated: 10:42 Monday, May 23, 2005