MARK Applegarth hopes that York Knights can learn a lot from their 20-4 defeat at Wakefield Trinity ahead of tough matches against play-off hopefuls Sheffield Eagles and Featherstone Rovers over the coming fortnight.

His side had built a five-match winning streak to mount a late push into the Betfred Championship play-offs, but found the League Leaders’ Shield winners, and overwhelming favourites, a step too far.

The Knights were sluggish out of the blocks, and though surviving consecutive goal-line drop-outs, were undone by two quick-fire tries either side of the 10-minute mark.

First, Iain Thornley escaped Joe Law’s clutches and raced down the right wing before releasing the supporting Max Jowitt to score, before Jermaine McGillvary fed Luke Gale to touch down in a carbon copy two minutes later.

Brad Ward flew into the left corner as the Knights crucially stopped the rot midway through the half, but there was still time for McGillvary to add his name to the scoresheet shortly before the break.

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The better of the chances fell the visitors in the second half, with Tom Lineham bundled into touch as he looked set to score and both Connor Bailey and Jack Martin held up over the line.

But tiring defences opened the door for Wakefield to kill the game off late on, Jowitt turning provider for Derell Olpherts to wrap up the scoring with four minutes left to play.

York offered up a far improved performance from their 40-4 and 50-6 defeats to Trinity earlier in the season, but whilst Applegarth was pleased with their defence, he admits they lacked smarts in attack.

“It’s a bit of a mixed bag, if I’m honest,” said the head coach, who, despite a valiant effort, failed to steer Wakefield away from relegation last season.

“I thought we started poor, which obviously Wakefield took full advantage of.

“I can’t knock anyone for their defensive application, but we’ve just spoken about it in the changing room, and I don’t think we played particularly well with ball in hand.

“When you’re playing in these games at the top of the Championship and you’re playing the top of the league, it’s not about those glamour plays, it’s about doing the basics well.

“I don’t think we showed enough of that today and it’s hopefully a good lesson for us that we need to learn quickly going into Friday’s game [against Sheffield Eagles].”

Finding it tough going through the Knights’ middles, led by a Man of the Match performance from the returning Jordan Thompson, Wakefield looked to the edges in their pursuit of points.

All three of their first-half tries came from missed tackles deep within their own half, with cheap penalties doing little to help the visitors’ cause.

Wakefield looked to the edges for all four of their tries.Wakefield looked to the edges for all four of their tries. (Image: Craig Hawkhead Photography)

“They’ve got some quality attacking players that can do that to you,” Applegarth conceded.

“I think they broke through our defensive system a couple of times; you can’t afford to do that against teams that have Wakefield’s quality. They’re top of the league for a reason.

“It’s a good lesson for us there, but we don’t just want to be happy losers that we’ve put in a good effort, we’re hurting because we didn’t show the ball in hand like we wanted to.

“We’ll dust ourselves down and get ready for Sheffield on Friday in what is another tough game and a big game for us.”