York's New Year resolution to turn pressure into points lasted for nearly ten minutes in their friendly at Pontefract before they were beaten 21-10.

The visitors fielded an under-strength side including Cavaliers prop Andy Blain, Extra 'A' loose forward Leon Shooksmith and 'A' players John Kama and Chip Beck, with Paul Scott trying his best at scrum half.

But they almost took an early lead when the excellent Charlie Kama, watched by most of his Fijian family, charged through to Pontefract's 22-metre line and fed Copeland who looked to be going over before being felled by a crunching tackle.

York did take the lead after seven minutes when a break by Kama set up Ian Davies to bulldoze his way over the line despite the attentions of several Pontefract players.

The home side got their first points on the board when York were penalised for lying on the ball, Eddie Glaze slotting over the kick.

Pontefract then went ahead when centre Simon Spears knifed through a hesitant centre field line to touch down, Glaze adding the conversion.

York started to make mistakes with their touch kicking missing the mark too often and slow service and erratic passing from the base of the scrum giving Mark Roberts a nightmare at fly half.

That left Pontefract in control and they deservedly increased their lead when left winger Nick Boothroyd ducked under a tackle to squeeze in at the corner, giving them a 15-5 lead at the break.

The second half was much the same story with the Yorkshire RFU experimentation of using three officials - a referee and two assistants running the touchlines - producing too much interference from the assistants.

York's poor passing and unforced errors gave the hosts escape routes out of their 22-metre area time and again but ten minutes into the half York scored the try of the season.

A quick tap penalty from Dave Dorking sent fly half Roberts on a mazy 50-yard run through the Pontefract defence as he dummied and angled his way to the line before gliding through the two covering threequarters to touch down, Nathan Savage missing the easy conversion.

Pontefract completed the scoring with a couple more penalties as the game fizzled out into an anti-climax, York once again promising much but delivering little.

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