ADAM Sullivan has seen his lead at the top of the Evening Press/Collier Plant Hire Player of the Year standings soar ahead of the Knights' clash with the Eagles tomorrow.

The March Player of the Month put in an awesome performance against Keighley last week, claimed by some to be the best individual showing by a Knights player since the club was formed.

The three player of the year points gleaned from that man of the match performance opened a four-point gap to fellow front-rower John Smith, the February Player of the Month.

Scott Rhodes was prominent in the incredible comeback at Cougar Park, setting up several Knights tries, so picks up two points, while the remainder went to Dan Potter who was unlucky to be sin-binned for alleged interference off the ball but came back to play a leading roll in the fight-back.

Surprisingly, that is Potter's first player of the year point of the season.

Reigning Player of the Year Lee Jackson got his first man of the match award of the season against Oldham with a sublime display in the Challenge Cup the previous week.

He just pipped Mark Cain to the award, Cain having been very influential in attack after coming off the bench, while Ian Kirke grabbed the remaining player of the year point for another eye-catching display.

Latest standings: Sullivan 13 points, Smith 9, Blaymire 6, Buckenham 5, Paterson 3, Rhodes 5, Kirke 5, Ross 3, Friend 2, McDowell 2, Jackson 5, Watson 2, Cain 2, Law 1, Liddell 1, Fox 1, Callaghan 1, Potter 1.

CONGRATULATIONS to Adam Sullivan for becoming the first player this season to be awarded a ten out of ten performance rating by the Evening Press, a mark which raised some eyebrows.

In explanation of this grading system, we try to take most things into consideration when giving our marks, such as the circumstances of the match and the standard of the game.

In that regard, these marks are for NL2 players and the levels aspired to at this standard. A ten out of ten rating therefore does not necessarily suggest a "perfect" performance in the absolute sense but rather the best that is realistically attainable.

Big prop Sullivan's individual performance last week was in our opinion arguably as good as it gets at this level and hence he received top marks.

Other relatively high marks handed out for the Keighley game have also been questioned, the argument being these ratings depicted the performance of the last 20 minutes only, and not the preceding hour in which the Knights trailed 31-12.

In defence, the team won away to a side who last year were playing in a higher division, and their performance in coming back outweighed the lesser display in the first half, hence the ratings rose.

THESE gradings are merely a guideline based on one person's opinion and are always open for debate.

Anyone wanting to dispute last week's ten out of ten mark can do so by forwarding their name, address and details of where they sit/stand at Huntington Stadium to Mr A Sullivan, c/o York City Knights, Huntington Stadium, York.

Updated: 11:00 Saturday, April 16, 2005