Knights 38, Doncaster 26

The Knights boosted confidence for their Division Two campaign by beating Doncaster 38-26 at Huntington Stadium in their second pre-season match following the defeat of Leeds at New Year.

But Cook said there was much to work on, and even found fault with the first-half performance in which his side piled up a 28-0 lead.

"The half-time score didn't reflect the game," he said. "I didn't think we played particularly well to our systems. We've got a game-plan but didn't stick to it. We didn't attack the spaces we said we would, but there were good individual efforts for the tries. There were a few quality kicks and some quality individual play that got us through."

He added: "We're not happy with the second half. There were some soft tries which was a disappointment. I think we sat back on what we did in the first half and you can't do that. We found it difficult to claw our way back into the game."

However, there were several positives. Said Cook: "It was a tough test. They're a physical side with some quality players. Doncaster were more physical than Leeds were. The boys are pretty bashed up, there were a lot of high shots in the game, but we fronted up well at times.

"I was quite happy with our discipline. We spoke about it - you don't want to be ill-disciplined and give away penalties and sin-bins.

"We did improve in some areas in which we were poor against Leeds. We were tight around marker, worked hard and some of our line defence and the line speed was good. But there were some poor decisions in defence and we let a few soft tries in. We can look at them through the week - the boys like looking at things like that!"

That first half brought two tries each for man of the match Dan Potter and Austin Buchanan and another for Adam Sullivan.

The first two came early and were exact replicas, Paul Thorman and Neil Thorman sending up pin-point bombs with Potter then Buchanan respectively out-leaping the defender to score.

A sharp pass by David Bates then put fellow prop Sullivan barging through to the posts, before brilliance by Neil Thorman on the last tackle put winger Peter Fox away and he gave Potter the scoring pass.

Potter then had a hat-trick try harshly ruled out for a forward pass - referee Colin Morris seemed as if he needed the pre-season practice more than most, being especially lenient on Doncaster's apparent spoiling tactics - before Buchanan beat old team-mate Craig Farrell down the flank and, using a hot shoe shuffle, turned the full-back inside out to cross under the sticks for Paul Thorman to bag his fourth of five conversions.

Buchanan had endured a dodgy start to the match but bounced back brilliantly.

Farrell and Gareth Lloyd were the only ex-Yorkies in the Dragons line-up as Dale Cardoza was left out, Dean Andrews was not fit and Chris Langley was struggling with a quadricep injury which had recurred during his four-try show at Hunslet last week.

The second half was a different story as Doncaster scored five tries of their own and had a sixth ruled out for a forward pass.

Wayne Green claimed a fine hat-trick while fellow winger Dean Colton and sub Kirk Netherton also crossed, but the Knights maintained a healthy lead as Fox finished well from Potter's quick pass down the blind side and Potter himself, having missed an earlier chance because of some dodgy football skills, finally completed his hat-trick - to follow Fox's treble against Leeds - after some fine play down the right.

Knights: Blaymire, Fox, Potter, Ross, Buchanan, N Thorman, P Thorman, Sullivan, Elston, Bates, J Smith, Callag-han, Paterson. Subs (all used): Jackson, Ramsden, Sozi, Forsyth, McDowell, Cain. Tries: Potter 3, Buchanan 2, Sullivan, Fox. Goals: P Thorman 5.

Dragons: Horne, Colton, Farrell, Muff, W Green, Holroyd, Cook, handforth, P Green, Ostler, Harland, Moana, Hay, Lawton, Lloyd, Crooks, Netherton, Norcross, Buckenham. Tries: W Green 3, Netherton, Colton. Goals: Holroyd 3.

Ref: Colin Morris (Huddersfield).

Attendance: 1,214.

Updated: 10:54 Monday, January 17, 2005