EVERYBODY is allowed a bad day at the office, so it is probably best for York City Knights that they write this game off as just that.

A lacklustre display saw them 16-0 down with barely 11 minutes on the clock and they never looked capable of recovering.

So bad was their defence, in the first period especially, I wouldn't have trusted some of the players to tackle a crossword let alone the Featherstone pack, while after the break it was their attacking play that suffered as loose passes, poor handling and abject decision-making saw them struggle to complete their sets of six.

Perhaps this is being a bit on the harsh side. You can argue that injuries have robbed Paul Broadbent of some of his leading stars, with the player-coach adding himself to the list after 20 minutes with a calf strain, and that the squad had nothing to play for against a Featherstone side desperate to qualify for the next round of the Arriva Trains Cup.

But there is little doubt that Broadbent and his coaching team will be out at training this week going back over the basics of the game ahead of Good Friday's National Two opener against Gateshead Thunder.

Featherstone made their mark on the game with little over two minutes on the clock as full-back Nathan Graham brushed aside Scott Fletcher's attempted tackle before ghosting past Chris Smith to race in. Stuart Davies converted.

If the Knights' faithful had hoped that was just a blip, then they would not have liked what they saw three minutes later.

Richard Chapman was given the time to execute a '40:20' kick allowing Rovers straight back into the Knights' 20-metre area. And although York made the first tackle from the resulting scrum, somehow loose-forward Danny Seal was able to carve his way through a non-existent defence for the second try. Dickens' conversion make it 12-0.

Surely now the message had been rammed home to tackle lower, but no, Rovers extended their lead to 16-0 as Graham popped the ball out of the tackle for Ian Brown to cross.

Things were looking bad for the Knights, but they at last seemed to awake from their slumber to test the Featherstone defence. Gareth Lloyd, Mick Ramsden and Scott Rhodes all drove short of the line before the classy Trevor Krause finally got the Knights on the board.

A family bereavement meant there had been a possibility of the Aussie star returning home and missing the game. How York would have missed him had he gone.

The stand-in hooker, alert and dangerous throughout the match, nipped in for the first of two tries on 28 minutes.

The lively Chris Beever, another reason for it not to be all doom and gloom after the final whistle, had been hauled down short, and while Featherstone were still aligning their defence, Krause scooped up the heel back and stretched out an arm to score.

Unfortunately, there was no dramatic comeback on the cards for the home fans as tries from Rovers either side of the break sealed the inevitable.

Seal raced in from 60 metres after the Knights had been caught napping at a 20-metre restart for Carl Briggs to add the conversion and give Rovers a 22-4 half-time lead, while Chapman added to the misery five minutes after the restart.

Featherstone were allowed to keep the ball alive on the fifth tackle for far too long and York paid the penalty for not nailing the ball carrier as Richard Agar jinked through before slipping the pass inside for Chapman to score. Briggs converted.

However, encouragingly for the Knights, they stepped up a gear in defence and attack and were rewarded with two tries of their own.

Beever can take a slice of credit for the first as his determination in chasing Rhodes' kick ahead saw him trap Adrian Flynn over his own goal-line, forcing Fev to drop out.

From the kick, Andy Burland made in-roads in the Rovers defence before Krause produced a sublime 'show and go' to open up a gap for Ramsden to charge through and supply the scoring pass to Darren Robinson. Adam Thaler converted.

Krause was again the key man as the Knights pulled it back to 28-14, pouncing to score from acting-half.

Almost predictably though, Rovers had the last word and again it was powder-puff tackling that let in the score, with Agar scooting through a hole in the Knights' defensive line.

The result helped Featherstone to their goal of qualification to the ATC knock-out stages, but for the Knights it will be back to the drawing board ahead of their ultimate goal of the league season.

Match Facts:

Knights 14

Rovers 32

Knights: Smith 6, Beever 7, Lloyd 6, Callaghan 6, Sheriffe 5, Thaler 5, Rhodes 6, Broadbent 6, Krause 8, Hayes 7, Embleton 6, Fletcher 5, Ramsden 6.Subs: Clarke 7, Robinson 7, Burland 6, Bolus 6.

Tries: Krause 28, 63, Robinson 58.

Conversions: Thaler 63.

Penalties: None.

DG: None.

Rovers: Graham, Stokes, O'Meara, Brown, Flynn, Agar, Briggs, Tonks, Chapman, Dickens, Dooler, Rice, Seal.

Subs: Whiting, Bailey, Jowett, Molyneux.

Tries: Graham 2, Seal 5, 40, Brown 11, Chapman 45, Agar 73.

Conversions: Dickens 2, 5, Briggs 40, 45.

Penalties: None.

DG: None.

Man of the match: Trevor Krause - tthrough the mill off the pitch, but the rare shining light on it.

Referee: Julian King (St Helens).

Penalty count: 7-5 HT: 4-22

Attendance: 1,415.

Updated: 12:13 Monday, April 14, 2003