DELIGHTED York City Knights player-coach Paul Broadbent today warned against complacency after his side outclassed high-flying Hunslet Hawks.

The Knights, who endured a poor start to the National League Two campaign, have now won three consecutive matches for the first time in their short history to move into the play-off places.

Yesterday's 40-18 win at South Leeds Stadium was perhaps the most impressive, coming against the team in second place, but while he was confident his side were now on the up, Broadbent has said they must stay focused.

"I've been saying every time we have a win that there is a fine line between confidence and complacency and we want to keep the players on their toes," said Broadbent.

"I don't want them thinking they're home and dry before they even get their shirt on. We've got to keep doing the hard graft first."

Broadbent admitted his side went off the boil at certain stages yesterday, but he was generally delighted with the quality on show.

"We got off to a great start to the second half (with a Chris Smith try) but we then had a period where we did not have the same sort of endeavour as we had in the first period," he said.

"We maybe slacked off towards the end as well, but credit to Hunslet, they never gave in and kept coming at us. They showed a bit of commitment.

"But I've got nothing but praise for our guys. We played some quality stuff. We're still not squeaky clean but you are never going to play quality football without a certain element of risk. If you are going to put plays together you're going to get caught out from time to time."

As for the improvement over the last three games, he said: "I think the guys needed to get a decent win to start growing in confidence. We knew they had a lot more in them.

"There are always going to be ups and downs in a season and we needed to keep that run of bad performances to a minimum. I believe we're starting to show some of the real quality we've got on board."

Broadbent lauded the strength he has on offer in the front row, with new signing Craig Forsyth, Rich Hayes, Andy Burland and himself now able to share the workload, and he singled out Darren Callaghan, who is proving to be a fine asset in several positions.

"He's been coming off the bench and has been a really enthusiastic force when we've been fetching him in the back row or using him in the centre," he said.

"This last month all the guys have been extremely professional about everything they've done and it is showing."

Broadbent has also been able to strengthen the backs with the capture of York RUFC winger Rob Kama, who made his Knights debut yesterday when he came on for Leigh Deakin.

Updated: 11:32 Monday, June 16, 2003