ANDREW HENDERSON admits that his York Knights side were comfortably second best as they fell to a 22-10 defeat against his former side Keighley Cougars last night.

Despite taking an early lead, York struggled to control the threats of former Betfred Super League quartet Dane Chisholm, Ben Crooks, Jimmy Keinhorst and Luke Gale, who were instrumental in completing the turnaround for the visitors.

Things also went from bad to worse on the injury front for the Knights, Conor Fitzsimmons, Danny Kirmond and Liam Harris the latest names to be sidelined as they were forced to finish the match with both full-back Matty Marsh and hooker Josh Daley playing out of position in the halves.

However, the head coach was impressed with his side’s grit and determination to hold off a late Keighley charge, despite feeling that they had not performed to the best of their abilities.

“The start was great,” he reflected. “I thought we came out and we started with some real intent and purpose and we got on the scoresheet early. 

“I felt probably as the half wore on, we probably didn’t play smart enough. Things that we’d wanted to execute tonight in terms of a plan, we went away from it.

“We started the way we wanted to start and then we kind of just went away from that.

“I’m not one for excuses, but certainly it didn’t help when we lost Conor Fitzsimmons, who has been one of our best go forward so far this year. We lost him very early in the game, within the first 15 minutes, never to return.

“Then we lost Danny Kirmond, who was struggling with [his] hamstring up until half time. We got him through to half time, but we just couldn’t bring him back on, so he had to get replaced. 

“And losing Liam Harris just as we thought there was something to get us back into the contest. We lost him whilst he was in the act of scoring that try, so we played the last 20 minutes effectively without an interchange.

“It was a tough, tough night for those reasons.”

York Press: Half-back Liam Harris received a boot to the face as he crossed for the Knights in the second half.Half-back Liam Harris received a boot to the face as he crossed for the Knights in the second half. (Image: Craig Hawkhead)

While the Knights were at times off the pace, the Cougars instead seemed to be mostly on it, with a devastating second-half spell, in which they scored twice in three minutes, proving enough to take the game out of the Knights’ reach.

“I don’t want to take anything away from Keighley,” Henderson continued. “I thought they were good, they upped the tempo at the right time and they just took full advantage. 

“I thought probably a couple of younger guys just got a little bit challenged there and it was always going to be hard. We played on Sunday and we’ve really frontloaded a lot of energy into that game against Sheffield, and we’ve got to remember we are a fairly young side. 

“We’ve got a lot of young players out there that are still learning. That’s the challenge and that’s part of the experience - when you deliver a big performance, getting up and going again, it’s difficult.

“For a few players out there, I just felt they were a little bit off, but I think that’s probably a bit of their age and experience. But saying that, there were still a number of other guys that probably weren’t quite at the at the levels that we needed. 

“We just didn’t work smart enough, and then in the second half, I just thought we came up with too many errors, which then gave Keighley a sniff to roll on.”