York City Knights chief executive John Guildford said there was "absolutely no pressure whatsoever" on head coach Mick Cook, despite seeing the team fall to a club record five consecutive defeats.

Cook's men lost 41-34 at Batley Bulldogs in a vital match at the bottom of LHF Healthplan National League One yesterday, leaving them in the relegation zone four points from safety and still without a league win.

But Guildford praised the reigning NL2 Coach of the Year and said: "People don't know just how much he's brought to this club and how much work he puts in for nothing. He's done a hell of a lot for York City Knights.

"There's no point talking about it - there's absolutely no pressure on him whatsoever."

Former Leeds Rhinos Academy boss Cook, who led the Knights to the NL2 title last season in his first year as a head coach, has had bad luck with injuries to his team this term, and yesterday Craig Farrell joined the lengthy long-term absentees' list when picking up what is thought to be a serious knee ligament injury late in the game. It is not yet known how much damage he suffered but he was stretchered off in agony.

Cook however, was not making excuses and blamed the defeat on poor defence in a torrid first half.

The Knights trailed 34-4 at the interval, with a second-half fightback down the infamous Mount Pleasant slope being in vain.

Cook said: "We didn't turn up in the first half and the thing that has been strong in the past two weeks - our defence - was not there.

"Our one-on-one defence was poor, and poor decision-making and not working with each other cost us. The work we do in defence has been very strong but we conceded real soft tries yesterday.

"We knew the type of game Batley play and we worked in training to stop them - but we didn't do it on the pitch.

"We scored 30 points in the second half, but we'd had chances in the first half but again it was not good enough.

He added: "We put some nice touches together (in the second half) but we got pulled back with a couple of forward passes and we have to be better than that. If those passes stuck we would have got two tries and won the game."

The Knights pulled off many victorious comebacks last year but Cook reiterated they have to play well for 80 minutes in NL1.

"In this league you can't concede 40 points and expect to come back and win games. It's a step up and you have to be in there from the kick-off," he said.

"The players fought back and showed spirit but they need that spirit at the start. Nearly every game this year we're having to come from behind. We have to start getting in control in games. It would be nice to get to half-time on top, but we're always having to spend the half-time team talk sorting out our defence.

"We only conceded one try in the second half but it was too late - the difference was too big to make up.

"The league is too strong to allow for inconsistencies in defensive work. We proved we can score tries but we've got to stop conceding them. We need to start getting in front but it's chase, chase, chase at the moment."

As for the injury list, he said: "It's a bit frustrating but what can you do? It's not ideal having some of your best players out for weeks or months, but you have to cope with it."

He added: "We need to regroup. There's no hiding from the fact we need some points."

Updated: 08:36 Monday, May 29, 2006