AN unhappy Mick Cook admitted that watching his York City Knights side was a frustrating pastime after they fell to a 30-16 defeat at Rochdale.

A good second-half performance yesterday could not make up for an error-strewn first period and Cook reiterated that his side must play at a high standard for the entire match to get anything from teams in LHF Healthplan National League One.

As it is, the Knights - hoping to be the first champions of NL2 not to be relegated straight back down - remain without a point after four league games, but stay above Batley and Oldham on points-difference.

Cook said: "When we play we look good but we've got to play for 80 minutes.

"It's frustrating for me, it's frustrating for the players, but there are too many errors.

"It was the old phrase, 'a game of two halves' yesterday. In the second half we showed a better attitude, got into them and had a fair share of territory, but in the first half we played 90 per cent of it in our own half. That's going to have an adverse affect and Rochdale put some smart plays in at the end."

The Knights were down to 18 fit players yesterday as back-rower Dave Buckley pulled out with a virus.

Cook said: "The injury situation does not help but there are no excuses. We came here to win a game - but we waited 40 minutes to click into gear.

"We gave too much away again. We put so much pressure on ourselves. The game-plan was working a treat, we were causing problems and things happened. But we've developed this habit of giving too much away.

"We're in a different division now where standards are higher and you get punished more severely than in National League Two.

"This game is great to play but when you spend so much time defending it's not a particularly nice game to play. We have to stop gifting soft turnovers.

"Rochdale have lost just one game all year. They're a quality side and they're winning games on merit not because other teams are poor. We came out in the second half with a good attitude and got into them but we had left it too late again."

Buckley's late withdrawal forced a reshuffle which saw Paul Thorman come in at hooker. The Geordie capped a solid display with a try and Cook said: "It (playing him at hooker) was more of a necessity than an experiment as we were down to 17 or 18 players. I thought he did okay, but he would do as he's a gifted player with good skills."

He added: "There are positives every week but we need to become a side who stop giving away the ball.

"I'm not happy because we're not winning games and we should be."

Updated: 10:00 Monday, May 01, 2006