YORK City Knights skipper Lee Jackson claimed his turn of pace surprised even himself yesterday as he dashed to a fine individual try in the Knights' 44-24 defeat of Swinton.

The 30-yard effort, in which he rounded nippy Lions full-back Wayne English, was arguably the highlight of a man-of-the-match display from the former Great Britain hooker, who turned 35 a week ago.

He also set up three more touchdowns in a seven-try romp which increased the Knights' winning run to five games - including four in National League Two, equalling the club's league record - and lifted them to second in table.

"It was 100 yards, wasn't it," said Jackson of his try. "I couldn't believe it when I went round him - I thought their full-back was one of their strongest players. I did not think I had that kind of pace.

"I thought it was a decent opportunist try, but there were some better tries than that."

He added: "We've just got to keep winning - and cut out the stupid mistakes.

"We're having a bit of a block where for ten or 15 minutes we are doing nothing, instead of putting on a full 80 minutes, but generally things are going good for us.

"As long as we keep this run going we can only get stronger and people might take us seriously."

As for the tries he set up, Jackson - who declared he was "happy for a change" with his performance - said: "It was just one of those things. We're calling moves and I happened to be in the thick of things.

"I thought everybody had a decent game, apart from that block where we make individual errors.

"They scored points they shouldn't have been allowed, tries they've not had to work for where people are not concentrating enough, but apart from that it was good."

Knights coach Agar had words of praise for his skipper, as well as forwards Yusuf Sozi and Damian Ball and centre Aaron Wood, who was announced as the sponsor's man of the match.

"Lee Jackson created havoc around the ruck and the period he was off the pitch was probably our worst," he said.

"Aaron picked up the (sponsor's) man of the match award and probably had his best game for us, and we would be looking for him to keep doing that, and Sozi and Ball also had good games.

"But that's just the tip of the iceberg. There were good individual performances across the board."

He added: "Against a team that was in the top five, I thought it was a great result. We do at times test ourselves but at other times I thought we played some scintillating rugby.

"Sometimes, though, I wish we could just score the easy ones.

"I thought it was pretty comprehensive. We got in front and to be honest we could have killed the game better. I was disappointed with the poor ten minutes before half-time, but generally I'm quite happy.

"Apart from their few tries we were in control and in the second half we defended structurally very well.

"We conceded that late try but otherwise our structures and enthusiasm were good and we really did the job in the second half."

Agar has a few "minor" injury worries ahead of next week's trip to Halifax for the Arriva Trains Cup quarter-final, but hinted he wouldn't risk anyone for what remains the club's second priority.

"Jim Elston's gone in a pothole and turned his ankle, but we think it's nothing too much to worry about, and Austin Buchanan had a bit of cramp but is okay," he said.

"Simon Friend had a minor hamstring aggravation and we will see how he goes on in the week."

Updated: 11:01 Monday, May 31, 2004