TENACIOUS City of York I moved to joint second place in the Northern Hockey League premier division with a 2-0 win at Rotherham I.

It was York's third successive game without conceding a goal and was achieved despite defensive stalwarts Gordon Jennings and Nick Carter having to call off.

Glyn Humphrey missed an early chance against the hosts' young side who were finding it hard to make progress against the fierce tackling of Luke Griggs and David Brookes.

As the game wore on Chris Wilson's telling runs down the right created problems, while James Gilbert often split the defence when coming in from the left.

York forced a short corner and went ahead through Jason Russell's shot.

The Rotherham defender who had given away the short corner was sin-binned for dissent and the home side lost their discipline.

When Rotherham returned to full strength, York doubled their advantage through Gilbert with another short corner.

While York kept their cool the Rotherham defender who had been sin-binned continued to argue with the umpire at the end of the game and was red carded after the final whistle.

Next up for York are Harrogate, with whom they share second spot, and whom they have already beaten this season.

City of York II's run of victories came to a halt in a 0-0 draw with visiting Wakewfield I in division two east.

Chris Dutton made some good runs down the right, while John Raper came close to scoring and Rob Blackburn had a short corner strike chalked off for being too dangerous.

Wakefield's defence held out under strong pressure, particularly in the final 15 minutes.

The York third team's winning streak also came to an end on home territory was they were beaten 3-1 by Rotherham II in Yorkshire League division three.

Alex Burton gave York a fifth-minute lead, but the visitors hit back with three unanswered goals in the second period.

Denis Hootton's goal, created by Adrian Nye and Sam Blackburn, gave City of York IV a point from a 1-1 division five draw at Rotherham III.

Andy Wilson and James Blanchard came close to grabbing a winner for York, who were more dominant.

Peter Puckston scored twice as City of York V hammered Huddersfield V 6-1 at home in division seven.

Tom Sorby's stunning strike gave York an early lead, doubled shortly afterwards by Richard Cockram.

Puckston made it 3-0 before Huddersfield pulled a goal back only for York to pull away again through David Rowlands and John Jenkin before Puckston completed the rout from a short courner.

In division eight, City of York V suffered another miserable day, losing 3-1 at Thirk, where Neil Reader scored City's consolation effort.

Tom Jolly, Ben Foster and Graham McFaul were on target as City of York VIII shared six goals with Chapletown III in division nine.

York VIII started at Slazengers V with only nine men but took a deserved lead through Les Reed. However, despite going up to full strength they lost 6-1.

Updated: 08:40 Tuesday, December 02, 2003