WHAT a comedown. After flying high at Sheffield Eagles and then reaching loftier heights against Doncaster Dragons, York City Knights came down to earth with a bump at New Craven Park.

Although confidence could not have been a problem, the Knights seemed to lack the drive and desire they had shown in those two previous games and, after being put on the back foot, they did not have the necessary umph to turn it round.

An early injury to stand-off Jonny Firth disrupted the line and the second-half sin-binning of Alex Godfrey did not help either, but nevertheless the tackling was not the same as it was - five of hosts Hull KR's six tries involved at least one missed tackle - and the urgency was not there either.

Rovers, on the other hand, showed plenty of hunger, mixing in-yer-face defending with increasingly confident ball play, as they hit back after two successive Arriva Trains Cup defeats to do the double over York, having triumphed in the opening day clash at Huntington Stadium.

The match began brilliantly for the Knights - who were wearing their new away kit of predominantly sky blue - as referee Steve Nicholson awarded a penalty after 30 seconds, which Graeme Hallas goaled, after Rovers full-back Craig Poucher had played the ball incorrectly.

However, the Whitehaven whistle-blower thereafter more than balanced the books, as the penalty count of 12 to seven in Rovers' favour patently indicates.

On 18 minutes he punished Knights full-back Chris Smith for miss-playing the play-the-ball - when Smith had his leg held by a tackler - and Rovers needed no second invitation as Paul Pickering ducked under Darren Callaghan's tackle to scuttle over.

Nicholson was again in the spotlight five minutes later, when Mark Cain was sent away by a great ball from Broadbent only to be stopped by a head high tackle of some ferocity.

With fans from both sides wondering what colour card would be shown, Rovers centre Ian Bell was merely given a talking to. The incident wasn't even put on report.

York made nothing of the penalty and on the half-hour Rovers went further ahead when some good pressure on the York line developed an overlap on the right for Bell to send former York winger Nick Pinkney over for an easy touchdown.

As the clock ticked towards half-time, Smith dropped a bomb which set up another good position for the hosts. Fit-again scrum-half Latham Tawhai exploited a gap and, although Smith made amends by turning him on his back when over the line, in the next set the ball went right for Pinkney to benefit from weak tackling to notch his second.

Chris Stephenson added his third touchline conversion to round off the first-half scoring at 18-2, which meant that York, if they were to have a chance of getting anything from the game, needed to score early in the second.

This they did, as a 40-20 by Cain in the first minute set the platform for a successful attack.

Darren Robinson tried to burrow over from acting-half on the sixth tackle and, although he was stopped, he threw the ball back, where Trevor Krause picked up and sent through a grubber which somehow found its way to Cain to touch down.

With Hallas struggling with a knock which later saw him retire - one of several York players to finish the match limping - Robinson successfully took over kicking duties.

Nicholson returned to the fore on 52 minutes when, having warned both sides about offside, he yellow-carded Godfrey after the winger, having taken a knock, got up from a blatant offside position to halt an attack. And Rovers took full advantage with two quick tries.

The first came after Nicholson awarded a penalty against a frustrated Smith - who had earlier been tripped and held down several times without getting a decision - and two more for offside, which took play to the York line where Dean Andrews brushed aside Robinson to cross.

Three minutes later Jon Aston powered on a run and fed Poucher to sprint 40 yards to score down Godfrey's vacant flank, Stephenson goaling.

Bell was next to benefit from some poor tackling as he scored down the right, Stephenson converting, before York had the last word through Cain.

The former Robin saw his restart bounce off the crossbar and over the end-line, with York benefitting from a strange decision as they were awarded the ball. Ironically, the home fans chanted "you don't know what you're doing" to the officials, as Cain took the pass and side-stepped the full-back to score, Robinson goaling.

Hull KR: Poucher, Pinkney, Bell, Farrell, McClarron, Stephenson, Tawhai, Wilson, Pickering, Bovill, Sullivan, Asston, Smith.

Subs: (all used): Stott, Andrtews, Howard, P Fletcher

Tries: Pickering 18; Pinkney 30, 39; Andrews 56; Poucher 59; Bell 74.

Cons: Stephenson 18, 30, 39, 59.

Pens: None.

DG: None

Knights: Smith 6, Godfrey 6, Hallas 6, Callaghan 6, Molloy 6, Firth 6, Krause 7, Broadbent 7, Robinson 6, Hayes 6, Ramsden 6, S Fletcher 6, Cain 8.Subs: (all used): Beever 6, Lloyd 6, Westmoreland 6, Bolus 6.

Tries: Cain 41, 77.

Cons: Robinson 41, 77.

Pens: Hallas 1.

DG: None.

Man of the match: Mark Cain - got both of York's tries and was always a threat.

Referee: Steve Nicholson

Penalty count: 12-7

HT: 18-2

Attendance: 1,580

Updated: 10:06 Monday, March 24, 2003