DEWSBURY Rams boss Paul March believes his side let themselves down as they were thumped 40-0 by York Knights in front of their home crowd on Sunday.

The sides occupied the Betfred Championship’s relegation places ahead of kick-off at the FLAIR Stadium, but the gulf between them was evident for the majority.

Neither had been able to get a foothold in an error-strewn opening 15 minutes, but there was only one way traffic after Brad Ward had opened the scoring for the Knights with an acrobatic finish into the left corner.

Ata Hingano and Joe Brown added their names to the scoresheet in the 10 minutes that followed, and there was still time for the latter to race the length of the field to hand the Knights a deserved 18-0 lead at the break.

Mark Applegarth’s side did not let up in their pursuit of points after the interval, with Jimmy Keinhorst getting fingertips to Hingano’s chip less than a minute after the restart, and the Tongan playmaker bursting over for his second of the match before forwards Jordan Thompson and Ukuma Ta’ai added a final flourish late on.

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That is not to say that Dewsbury did not have their chances, for a multitude of Knights’ errors gifted them field position. However, having won consecutive penalties, and then a six-again inside the 10-metre line, a sloppy final pass typified their best chance of the afternoon.

“I’m very disappointed,” March told the club’s media team. “I think that what’s got us through games in the last four weeks, we let ourselves down today.

“The skill level I thought was poor, and obviously on the back of our errors, they capitalised.

“Against a team who are around us, we need to do better than that today. We’ve all let ourselves down.”

Dewsbury did have their opportunities, but their attack fell flat against a Knights defence that was relatively untroubled.Dewsbury did have their opportunities, but their attack fell flat against a Knights defence that was relatively untroubled. (Image: Craig Hawkhead Photography)

Whilst the result sees the Knights record a clean sheet for the first time this season, Dewsbury have now gone two and a half matches without troubling the scoreboard.

And despite the bottom half of the Championship table bunching up – with York one of five teams on eight points, and Doncaster just one point in front – the Rams are already six adrift at the season’s mid-point.

March dismissed the idea that contract talks may have distracted his players, insisting: “There’s talk about it, but there’s a job to do at the end of the day.

“If they want to play next week, they have to perform this week, and certainly the majority of the side didn’t. That’s why we’ve ended up on a hiding like we have.”

The long trip to Whitehaven awaits the Rams next week, with their head coach admitting that changes are likely following their heavy defeat.

“Even though they’re going to see some things on video, they’ve got to be positive about their review and how we go about things,” he explained.

“It’s disappointing because I put my faith in that 17 today, and I have lads chomping at the bit to come in.

“They’ll push the team this week, and there might be some changes at the weekend.”