YORK City Knights conceded 100 points for the first time in a humiliating 100-4 defeat at Leigh Centurions.

Here are five things we learnt from the Leigh Sports Village.

1. An embarrassing day for York City Knights

To devoid the match of the context around the quality of Leigh Centurions and York’s injury problems (more on those later) would be wrong, but it would be equally irresponsible to attempt to use those as justification for conceding a century of points.

“Utter disgrace”, “embarrassing” and “absolutely gutted” were just some of the terms used by head coach James Ford in his post-match interview and they reflected the display.

Leigh managed to offload the ball so easily on countless occasions and simply scored tries at will, managing five in the last seven minutes.

For Ford, who has talked up the character of this group in comparison to his 2021 side for much of the year, to end the day questioning the desire and effort of many of his squad is a sad state of affairs.

2. York’s season is in a desperate position

The headline statistic of six defeats from their last eight matches is a damning one for York, particularly given that the two victories managed in that time have come over bottom four sides Newcastle Thunder and Dewsbury Rams.

Even more concerning though is the mental state that the Knights players may be in heading into the play-offs, York’s place in which was rather oddly confirmed at the weekend as results elsewhere went their way.

Whether the current squad can recover from conceding 100 points is a huge question.

The defeat further added to the feeling that York are a level behind play-off rivals Leigh, Featherstone Rovers, Halifax Panthers, Batley Bulldogs and Barrow Raiders.

While the table shows they sit within a couple of points of the latter two with three regular season matches left, the reality is that the Knights have lost all of their last meetings with the current top five.

3. Returning players have to make an impact

Without excusing such a performance, York were without 10 players for the trip to Leigh.

Ata Hingano is available again for the rest of the season, having not been allowed to play against his parent club while the likes of Brendan O’Hagan, Danny Kirmond and Jordan Thompson are hoped to be short-term injury absentees.

The Knights will have bodies back soon and their importance was highlighted in the most dramatic manner.

4. Ford out comments are nonsensical

It is always worth treating social media comments calling for Ford’s head with scepticism given that they can often be opposition fans wallowing in York’s misery.

Those criticising Ford and his record have little to stand on. Turning the Knights from a League One club to one now regarded as a consistent Betfred Championship play-off contender is a remarkable achievement.

Reactionary viewpoints are understandable but shouts for a coaching change are sorely misplaced.

5. Leigh are a Super League team in waiting

If it was not already obvious, then Leigh again showed why they are a level above everyone else in the Championship on Sunday.

Reportedly spending around £1.3million, Leigh’s squad is full of ex-NRL and Super League talent and is led by former top-flight coaching pair Adrian Lam and Chris Chester too.

Yes, anything can happen in a one-off game but it would take a minor miracle for Leigh not to be promoted this year.