YORK City Knights' defeat at Barrow Raiders was costly in more ways than one.
The 30-10 result against the high-flying Cumbrians yesterday sees the Knights not only fall further behind the pace-setters in Co-op National League Two but also slip out of the play-off zone.
Worse still, they picked up four new injuries to key players Scott Rhodes, George Rayner, Dave Buckley and John Smith.
The full severity of the injuries is not yet known, but stand-off Rhodes and full-back Rayner have groin problems, forward Buckley has a knee problem and second-row Smith suffered a suspected recurrence of a broken foot.
If early fears are realised, the Knights would be severely thin on the ground for next week's return to Cumbria to face Workington, who have become something of a bogey team for Mick Cook's men.
Head coach Cook reckoned yesterday's scoreline was not a fair reflection on proceedings at Craven Park, though he admitted the Knights' record of only one win - against lowly London Skolars - in their opening four NL2 games was "not good at all".
"It's not the start we anticipated," he said, insisting the standard of NL2 since York's 2005 title triumph had not taken him by susprise.
"We knew it would be stronger, you've only got to look at some of the players in the competition to know that."
He added: "For long periods we handled Barrow and kept them in check. The score didn't reflect the game."
The Knights scored only two tries, one a consolation at the end, and Cook reckoned their problem in getting points on the board lay with handling errors.
Asked why his side were struggling to unlock defences, he said: "We struggled not so much to break them down. We were struggling to find energy because we were defending too much. We built no pressure because of mistakes with the ball, losing possession."
Again a referee seemed to play a leading role in proceedings with Wigan official Peter Taberner this time to the fore. Controversial calls which turned out to be crucial included the sin-binning of Jim Elston and the decision that Dave Buckley had lost possession at a key moment - when most people in the ground thought there was interference at the play-the-ball by a defender.
"There are always a couple of dodgy decisions but you've got to ride them," was Cook's assessment.
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