MARK Applegarth hailed York Knights’ discipline and decision-making as they maintained their plight for the Betfred Championship play-offs with a dominant 37-6 victory against Batley Bulldogs.

The Knights recorded three consecutive wins for the first time this season, maintaining their seventh-placed standing and inflicting a heaviest defeat of the campaign upon their opponents.

Despite only points difference separating the sides ahead of kick-off, their performances were worlds apart.

Whilst York played their rugby with an excitement and fluency, Batley were almost pedestrian in an error-strewn response that saw them rarely threatening the tryline.

“We knew we were going to be in for a very tough game,” admitted Applegarth after the final hooter.

”We spoke about backing up last week’s effort and not falling in love with ourselves, and I think we did that.

“Batley are one of those teams that never go away, it just shows you how well we’ve gone about our business to put that scoreline on Batley because I don’t think they’ve had that mark put on them all year.

“But again, its going to be a tough game against Whitehaven next week. It’s always a dangerous game when you’re going up there, and especially under the circumstances.

“We’ll enjoy tonight, I’ve told the lads to make sure that they enjoy the Bank Holiday, but then come Tuesday, we’ll be focusing ahead onto Whitehaven.”

Despite surviving an early scare, the Knights never looked back after opening the scoring with just six minutes on the clock.

Nikau Williams played in Connor Bailey to crash over to the right of the posts before James Cunningham combined with Ata Hingano, Brad Ward and Joe Brown in a flowing team move.

Robbie Butterworth proved too strong for Wakefield loanee Joe Law as he pulled a try back shortly before the half reached its midpoint, but the latter soon restored the Knights’ two-score lead after selling Elliot Kear a huge dummy.

Alistair Leak’s injury saw play halted for 10 minutes whilst the interchange hooker received treatment, and with the game turning increasingly scrappy, neither side could add to their advantage.

Points though continued to flow for the hosts after the break, with Williams slotting over a penalty before Brenden Santi took two defenders with him as he crashed off the left-hand post and across the whitewash.

Hingano then released the supporting Brown to score his 18th try of the season before Jacob Gannon got in on the action from Will Jubb’s thunderous pass as the Batley floodgates opened in a devastating 10-minute burst.

Williams though had the final word with a drop goal four minutes from time to wrap up a resounding victory for the Knights.

Whilst their tryline defence was rarely troubled, Applegarth was most impressed with his side’s discipline - one of their weaknesses throughout the campaign. 

The head coach explained: “They’ve a very big set that can whack you, so we spoke about the importance of turning the ball over on our terms and making them get back behind the ball. I thought we did that as a whole.

“I thought that break when Leaky got stretchered off – thankfully he’s okay - kind of rattled us a bit, we went away from what we had been working on and tried to win the game again, even though we were two scores up.

“But in the second half, after we got that early score, it settled us down and we put in a very disciplined performance.

“It was a really good performance from us, but it’s that tight right now that you can’t afford to take your foot off the gas on any coming week.

“We’ll enjoy tonight and then get back for another disciplined performance, all being well.”