YORK Knights head coach Andrew Henderson was left frustrated by his side’s ill-discipline against Swinton Lions, admitting that they had made harder work of their victory than they perhaps should have.

The Knights kept their late bid for a play-off place alive with a seventh win from their last eight Betfred Championship matches, but were far from their best in a performance that lacked much of their patient play over recent weeks.

It was a tie that ebbed and flowed, but double-try salvo from Wakefield Trinity loanee Oli Pratt was enough to secure the hosts a hard-fought 26-22 victory.

REPORT: York Knights hold off Swinton Lions charge to win penultimate home match

The Knights conceded six penalties during the opening half, with Henderson believing that if his side had maintained their composure, Swinton may well have began to crumble.

“From our point of view, I don’t think that we were at our best in terms of our discipline with and without the ball,” he conceded. “I thought that we made harder work of the game than we needed to.

“One thing that I think we have been delivering well in recent weeks is that we’ve had a lot of patience and composure and we’ve been disciplined with and without the ball. Today, we were the polar opposite to that.

“I thought that we controlled the first half really well, we completed high, the ball control was good, and we were asking a lot of different questions of the opposition. We were hitting short and playing flat and fast with some change of angle.

“There was a lot of variety in our attacking play, I thought that our ball control was great and we were turning the ball over in the right areas, but what let us down was our discipline.

“We conceded six penalties, and that’s what we spoke about at half time, that the scoreline didn’t reflect the control that we had in that first half.

“But the fact that we gave away six penalties just at the times that they were maybe ready to break, it just kept them in the contest.

“The try they scored right on half time, that came off the back of a yardage penalty, backed up by another penalty, and then backed up by an error. That’s three negatives, and the outcome is that they score.”

RECAP: York Knights 26-22 Swinton Lions

Discipline, composure and tightening his side’s defence were all discussed at half-time, but it proved to be more of the same from the Knights after the restart.

Another five penalties were conceded, with York lucky not to have been further punished from an error at the play of the ball on the hooter.

“We spoke at half time about delivering our process, tidying up some of our areas defensively and obviously being disciplined,” Henderson revealed.

“I think our completion rate in the second half was 67 per cent, where we turned the ball over was not high enough for where we set our targets to be, and we gave another five penalties away.

“That, for me, is what gave Swinton the energy at times and kept them in the contest, with the field position and the opportunity.

“We spoke through the week and said ‘they’re in a relegation dogfight, they’re not going to just go away. They’re desperate and they’re going to fight for their lives for their status to remain in the Championship’.

“But if we want to keep progressing the way we are doing, we have to deliver a level of performance to our standards.

“I just feel that today, we didn’t deliver the standards of what we’re capable of, and certainly not of the standard over recent weeks.

“Overall, we’re pleased that we got the result because this gives us another step forward towards a strong finish to the season.

“But we’re certainly not satisfied with our overall team performance.”

Asked if a lack of structure had also played its part, Henderson replied: “To a degree.

“I’m a realist as a coach, and we were down to our last 18 fit and available players today.

“We had a few guys playing out of position and some more coming back after long-term injuries as well in Josh Daley and Pauli Pauli, and a few young guys in Harry Price who hasn’t played for a number of weeks.

“There were always going to be some parts of the game where we weren’t firing on all cylinders - we were still going to have some clunky parts to it.

“But I still feel that there were areas of that game that we could have controlled and managed a lot better than what we did, that’s individually and collectively.

“To concede 11 penalties is nowhere near good enough.”