“WOEFUL” was how York City Knights boss Gary Thornton described the performance of his players as they were beaten 26-12 at Hunslet.
The head coach admitted to being “devastated” by the loss which continues his side’s sorry run of away results in the Kingstone Press Championship.
Still without a win on the road this season, Thornton’s men never looked likely to snap that run in an error-strewn display which, he said, was “awful”.
“A shocking performance. It was worse than Keighley, I think,” he said, referring to the 34-0 defeat in West Yorkshire last month.
“People were doing the wrong things at the wrong time, not sticking to the game plan. People have got their own agenda. When I have ever told my players to kick from play one from a scrum I will never know. Sometimes it happens. When they cross that whitewash, unfortunately, they are on their own.
“We just didn’t follow the game plan at all. Not from the word go.”
“They were out-enthused,” Thornton added when asked why his team had been so below par. “I thought Hunslet defended pretty well on their own try line. I don’t think they are that much of a better team than us at all. I just think they beat us through enthusiasm.
“We were very predictable – one-up carries, we were dominated, slow play-the-balls and you are never going to win games playing like that.
“I am devastated by that performance. I thought they were awful. We were really poor and it’s another disappointing away day for us. I am trying not to get too carried away with it because, this time last year, you’d have been happy with a bonus point at home never mind away.
“But we have got to pick up things away from home against teams like this and that’s no disrespect to Hunslet. I thought, looking at this, that it was a winnable game and we should have got something out of it.
“We didn’t deserve to get anything out of the game. It was a dumb performance and that’s what frustrates me. We looked good in training all week, we practiced well and then we came on Sunday and didn’t do anything that we rehearsed.
“I felt we missed Jack Lee massively. He was a huge loss for us. Kriss Brining tried hard, Jonny Presley tried hard but they don’t have his guile and his nous. I thought he was our biggest miss.
“I can’t think of any plus points.”
Thornton will almost certainly have to face Leigh at Huntington Stadium next Sunday without skipper James Ford, who was forced off in the second half and was, according to the coach, “a bit busted up”.
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