YORK City Knights coach Richard Agar has warned his troops to keep their feet on the ground following yesterday's 58-16 thumping of Dewsbury Rams.

The victory put the Knights on top of the Arriva Trains Cup 'Yorkshire group' but, while admitting he had to be happy with the day's work, Agar warned of the dangers of "falling in love with ourselves".

"It was a good afternoon so we've got to be happy," he told the Evening Press. "But we have to be careful not to get carried away.

"I'm disappointed with a couple of sloppy tries we gave away - we conceded avoidable tries - but we can't complain too much.

"I want us to believe in ourselves and that's a gradual process as we've all got to get to know one another, but we are improving week in week out.

"It's good to get onto the front foot. I feel we've still got lots of improving to do but I can see improvement every week."

It was the second time in two weeks that the Knights had topped the 50-point mark away from home, and Agar added: "I always feel we're a team capable of running in points because of the quality of the players we've got.

"But it's not just a case of scoring fancy tries - we've got to work for it, build and set a platform."

Agar, himself a former Dewsbury schemer, saw his team lead 18-10 at the interval before cutting loose in the second half.

"Dewsbury had a good win (over Sheffield) last week and we knew they would be confident and come out fighting, but in the second half we had the elements and we made good use of them and I'm happy with the way we got our game together.

"In the first half we looked a bit nervy and edgy. The players were putting in the effort but it was individual effort and there wasn't enough unity, but we improved in the second half."

Agar had special praise for scrum-half Danny Brough, who racked up 22 points with a try and nine goals on his first return to his home-town club since joining the Knights last year.

"Danny Brough stood out," said Agar. "We asked him in the week to push himself a bit and bring certain things to his game and he did that. He looked very confident and I'm over the moon for him.

"Nathan Graham also stood out at full-back and I'm also really happy with the way our forwards stuck to the task in the second half."

Brough himself was delighted with the victory. "I enjoyed it a lot," he told the Evening Press. "It was a good return to my local club, the whole team played well.

"We've progressed forward and made big steps. The recruitment has been good and we're gelling together more and more. It's going well."

Brough has also seen improvements in his own game since Richard Agar became Knights coach.

"He's a half-back and he's taught me a lot of things and when things come off it's great.

"We made a few errors but we had a good go-forward and people were willing to work and it was an excellent win."

Brough fittingly rounded off the scoring himself with a late converted try, chipping the ball over the defensive line and winning the race to it himself to sprint over the line.

"I'm really happy with that," he beamed. "Jim Elston called for a for a reverse kick and I ended up on the end of it instead of him."

On a sour note for the Knights, centre Chris Langley (hamstring) and try-scoring loose-forward Damian Ball (lower back) suffered injuries and are doubts for next week's Powergen Challenge Cup tie at Sheffield Eagles, though Agar is optimistic Mark Cain will be fit again.

Updated: 11:28 Monday, February 23, 2004