FOLLOWERS of York City and York Knights had a spring in their step today.
The rugby league side won 32-12 at Sheffield Eagles yesterday just 24 hours after the Minstermen kept their Division Three promotion campaign on track with a 3-1 win over Cambridge United.
The weekend was the first time since January 29/30, 2000, since both York City and York RL won on the same weekend.
City beat Barnet 1-0 at Bootham Crescent in Division Three. York Wasps won 56-10 at home against Dudley Hill in the Challenge Cup third round.
The victory by the fledgling rugby league club was the first by York RL on opposition soil for nearly three years and their first-ever win over professional opposition.
It was a particularly sweet moment for Knights' player Darren Callaghan and coach Paul Broadbent, both former Sheffield players.
The 26-year-old Callaghan, who decided to sign for his home-town club in the close season rather than stay with Sheffield, scored a try in yesterday's match against the Eagles and was one of the heroes of the Knights' inaugural win in the Arriva Trains Cup group section.
"I made some good friends here last season and I nearly re-signed for them but opted for York, so it's good to get one over on them," said Callaghan after the superb 32-12 triumph.
"I enjoyed it a lot. It was an all-round good performance. We talked all week about getting in their faces and we did that, especially in the first 20 minutes."
Callaghan also relished his try, which came on 30 minutes after Paul Wells had failed to deal with Mark Cain's kick.
"The ball popped up lovely, I got it and fell over the line," said Callaghan.
"I thought we all stuck to our games, we had a good kicking game, the forwards took us forward really well and Chris Smith at full-back had a good game, talking to us well."
Callaghan came in for special praise from player-coach Paul Broadbent.
"He feels he's been playing out of position in the centre but he showed he can be a real force both in attack and defensively," said Broadbent, who was naturally delighted with the massive team improvement compared to the Dewsbury defeat two weeks ago.
"It was a very pleasing display all round. All the guys deserve a big pat on the back," he said.
"The big question is often whether players who have under-performed can turn it around next time - and a lot of them did that.
"We saw a lot of signs of what we've been working hard on and we saw a level of consistency for 80 minutes which is hopefully going to be apparent on a weekly basis."
Broadbent, a Challenge Cup-winning hero in his days at Sheffield, was welcomed back to Don Valley Stadium with open arms, but was more than content to leave them with nothing.
"It's nice to come back and see a lot of old friends, but you always want to win," said the former Great Britain prop, who still lives just ten minutes from Don Valley. "Winning is what you want to do wherever you play."
He added: "At times (this season) we've shown a lack of urgency but it showed yesterday that we can produce it when we need to.
"Sheffield have had three games in a week and I hoped we'd have been a bit more gas in the tank but we started from the first minute and we showed we can be as competitive and resolute in defence as we need to be.
"The enthusiasm and application was better and the urgency was of a different level.
"The guys can see that if we look after the ball and play smarter we get the rewards."
Updated: 11:24 Monday, March 10, 2003
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