Shattered York Wasps will use their well deserved rest to regroup, analyse what went wrong and bounce straight back to the kind of form which deserted them in last night's disappointing defeat by Rochdale Hornets.

Wasps coach Dean Robinson refused to make excuses for the lack-lustre performance at the now familiar Spotland and admitted it was just a simple case of one game too many.

They now have nine days off before their next game at high flying Dewsbury Rams a week tomorrow and a relieved Robinson said the break couldn't have come at a better time.

"We desperately need a break. Four times this season I've been down to the bear 17 which isn't ideal. There were some very tired guys out there. We've got to get the conditioning back up without the wear and tear of matches and I'm confident we can bounce back against Dewsbury.

"The sign of a good side is accepting defeats as well as victories and learning from your mistakes. We haven't become a bad side overnight but we have to be mentally and physically tougher. We need to get more character."

It was York's second visit to Spotland in four days and their third of the season. In their first encounter they defeated Rochdale in the Challenge Cup and on Sunday hammered Oldham with an outstanding performance, though Robinson believed that was the worst thing which could have happened.

He said: "The players were a shadow of the what they were three days ago. We thought we could come here and carry on where we left off against Oldham but Rochdale are a very different side. I think if we'd have been playing anywhere else we'd have had the mental preparation right."

Instead of carrying on where they had left off they did the complete opposite and Robinson conceded: "That was our worst first half of the season. I still thought we had the talent to turn it round and win the game but in the second half we bombed chance after chance. All credit to Rochdale, they defended very well, but we haven't built the platform to justify going away with anything. For the first 20 minutes they were all looking for somebody else to do the work."

Robinson accepted half backs Mark Cain and Darren Callaghan failed to live up to recent billing and added: "We're not the biggest pack in the world which doesn't help when you're relying on strength to see you through when the going gets tough."

Discipline was another contributing factor as the Wasps were drawn into a bad-tempered match and conceded needless penalties. "Discipline is always a problem when things start to go wrong," said Robinson. "We did give some stupid penalties away and there will be a nice pot of gold in fines when we watch the video."

Winger Leigh Deakin praised the York fans who turned out in large numbers and were superb throughout. He said: "The fans were great out there, they really got behind us and it's disappointing for them and us.

"Rochdale were twice the side Oldham were but we should have come here and done the job. We'll try and put it right at Dewsbury."

Deakin, one of seven players to have tries disallowed when referee Paul Lee ruled a pass from Richard Goddard had gone forward, insisted there was nothing wrong with it but refused to make excuses. "We got outmuscled up front. We seemed to be on the back foot all the game and we didn't compete in the first half which resulted in their tries. We tried to pull it back but we just didn't do it."

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