HEAD coach Richard Agar slammed defensive ineptitude after seeing his York City Knights side crash to the club's heaviest-ever league defeat.

The Knights were walloped 44-20 away to Workington Town yesterday, a loss which eclipsed their previous worst reverse, 38-16 at Swinton Lions last season.

It also saw them lose the leadership of LHF Healthplan National League Two, with Barrow Raiders taking over top spot after seeing off bottom club Gateshead Thunder, although, in better news for York, fellow title contenders Sheffield were shocked by Swinton.

"Defensively we were inept," Agar told the Evening Press, pulling few punches after watching his side trail 26-4 at half-time and concede another 18 points in the second period.

"Our defence in the first half was non-committal, we did not work off the ball or kill the off-loads, our markers were non-existent and our tackling was weak.

"You can't say much more than that. I felt we made too many mistakes ball in hand. It was a poor performance.

"I can't see how to get any positives out of that at all."

Workington went into the game out of the play-off picture down in seventh place but, with new signings and returning players bolstering the side, defied their lowly position with an excellent performance. They face Barrow next week, when they could do York a favour.

Agar said: "They're a team that will get stronger as the season goes on. Calling it a 'banana skin' was a bit of a disservice to them - they played very well."

Asked whether complacency affected the Knights yesterday, he added: "I don't know. We will have a look at the tape. We're not in a position where we can be complacent.

"When you're at the top everyone wants to beat you. They (Workington) played with commitment and enthusiasm and in the first half we did not.

"There was an improvement in the second half, we showed more fight. If we had showed that in the first half it might have been different but it was too late. They simply had too big a lead to defend."

The Knights also picked up new knocks, with Danny Brough needing to go off with a knee injury, albeit returning to the fray, Richard Wilson suffering a bad head cut and Craig Forsyth pulling a hamstring. The seriousness of the injuries will be assessed this week.

Agar's side, whose eight-game winning streak ended in the semi-final at Hull KR next week, have now lost two games on the trot.

Next up is Hunslet away on Sunday, the Hawks having closed the gap to the Knights to two points by defeating Dewsbury yesterday.

He added: "We won't be doing anything special in training - we do different things all the time anyway.

"We'll review the tape, try to correct what we think we've done wrong and have a look at the team we're playing."

Updated: 11:24 Monday, July 05, 2004