York did justice to the fine day and hill-clad setting of the Settle-based North Ribblesdale Rugby Club by being worthy victors 20-6.

As befitted a crunch relegation fixture, it was a hard fought competitive but clean match and York's suffering of both a yellow and a red card was not indicative of the nature of the game or the visitors' approach to it.

After even early exchanges, York burst into life with a snappy break from scrum half James Arkle. He fed flanker Matt Emmerson, who was stopped by a comprehensive tackle just inside the Ribblesdale 22.

Fly-half Mark Roberts then sniped through to feed winger Billy Cakaonitabua, who shot in for an excellent try which Andy Kay could not convert.

York were on fire and skipper for the day Sean Bass picked up an awkward pass off his toes to work right and put Billy away on a productive run.

However, York were prone to make mistakes and this enabled their hosts to gain territory.

On one foray they earned a penalty for off-side and Sean Kennedy cut the deficit to 5-3 by making the conversion.

York maintained their momentum and within ten minutes they extended their lead when Emmerson, Arkle and Billy combined down the right for Kay to twist through several tackles and earn the touch down which he also converted.

York were enjoying superiority in the line-outs through Kay and Dave Spanton and generally had the better of the possession percentages, but Ribblesdale proved to be awkward customers with the ball in hand. Full back Garry Evans in particular was a handful.

Their enterprise earned a penalty opportunity which Kennedy converted to make the score 10-6.

There was no more scoring before the interval although York created chances as Arkle, Kay and flanker Lee Denham combined to create a constant threat.

The second half was more prosaic. York combined to dominate possession but Kennedy missed a chance to narrow the deficit.

Roberts began to control the game with excellent kicking which limited Ribblesdale's visits to the York half.

However, York ran into a bad period when lock Brad Macdonald was yellow carded and then, a few minutes later, long-serving lock Spanton was sent off in a hotly disputed incident as the referee penalised him for stamping.

This was hard on a player never previously dismissed, but it left York two men short for three minutes.

In amongst it all, Kay had added a penalty to give York the comfort of a 15-6 lead, but the last ten minutes were torrid as Ribblesdale pressed on the York line for several minutes.

Finally, with injury time approaching, a huge Roberts clearance took York to the Ribblesdale 22 and safety. But Roberts was not finished and he made a clever blindside break to seal an excellent personal and team performance by putting Denham in at the corner.

This victory certainly eased York's relegation worries, but victory in the remaining match against Yarnbury is essential if York are not to leave their fate in others' hands.

North Ribblesdale could well recover the two points margin as one of the two remaining fixtures is against lowly and doomed West Park Bramhope.

Updated: 12:01 Monday, April 15, 2002