by Dianne Hillaby

GARRY Atkins breathed a sigh of relief last night after narrowly escaping the ultimate humiliation in potentially his last match in charge of York Wasps.

The Wasps were trailing to rock bottom Lancashire Lynx until the 53rd minute of a drab end of season encounter at Huntington Stadium.

They managed to turn it around to scrape a 14-12 victory but for Atkins there was no pride in victory.

"I was very disappointed. It's a win but not a good win. The players went out thinking they would win easy and by the time they realised we were in for a game it was too late. I was grateful to win it in the end.

"They've played dumb amateur football, and amateur football is what some of them will be playing next season," said Atkins, whose future as coach could be decided next week.

"In games like these the opposition thrive on enthusiasm and bring you down to their level.

"We were obviously a lot better than that but they did a very good job in bringing us down to their level . They probably feel a little unlucky they didn't come away with the points."

The result could have been worse had Lancashire wing-er Damien Pickles not missed three goal attempts, including a couple of easy penalties in the first half.

That was a particular disappointment for Lancashire coach Maurice Bamford who revealed: "I only picked Damien because of his goalkicking.

"He's kicked more than 100 goals for Siddal and today he misses two straight in front that would have won us the game."

Bamford was also ruing the fact his players did not heed his half-time words of warning about York's New Zealand forward Michael Smith.

"I said at half-time I was afraid of Smith because they're using him as an impact player and he's very strong near the line.

"I said if he gets near the line you're going to have to be very watchful and what did he do? He split us open to set up the first try then scored the second," said Bamford, who now finds himself in a similar position to Atkins.

Both are waiting for their respective boards to make their next move with regards next season's coaching positions.

But while Atkins is likely to be one of the leading contenders at York, Lancashire are expected to look elsewhere.

Bamford wants to be taken on as a director of coaching and says he has men lined up who are capable of turning Lancashire around if he is appointed.

Atkins, however, is remaining philosophical about his position.

"They'll make a decision and I'll honour whatever decision they make. If they feel someone else needs to come in then so be it.

"I'll be happy to help out again if that's what they want," he said.