JAMES Ford was left frustrated by Featherstone Rovers’ “failure to nail their chances”  as they fell to a 16-6 defeat at York Knights on Sunday.

Rovers had made the perfect start at the LNER Community Stadium when Josh Hardcastle opened the scoring with five minutes on the clock, but, led by a Man of the Match performance from captain Liam Harris, the Knights had the game turned on its head by the break before sealing a precious victory inside the final minutes.

With the sides level on points ahead of their crunch final day decider, York’s victory earned them fourth place and a home play-off against Widnes Vikings on Saturday (3pm), whilst Featherstone had Sheffield Eagles to thank for squeezing into the top six, their season now continuing with a tricky trip to Bradford Bulls.

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“The game today, I don’t think that there was a lot between the teams,” Ford, who transformed the Knights from League One rugby to becoming one of the Championship’s top teams during his eight years at the helm, told club media.

“When you look at the statistics, we completed pretty similar, and in terms of our trap defence, we nailed them. I think we got eight 40 traps to their two or three, and that’s a real indicator of a side that’s on top.

“So why didn’t we win the game? I think the chances we created we didn’t nail.

“There were a couple in that first half, and I think if we’d have really, really nailed it, we could have had three or four tries in the first half.

“The second half, in that first 20-minute period, we were all over them. We just couldn’t quite nail those opportunities.

“You’ve got to credit the opposition in terms of their scramble and their willingness to defend play after play and chase back.

“We have to work on that and work on nailing our chances, but I’d be more concerned if we weren’t making any.

“Congratulations to York, but we know that we can improve significantly on that.”

The match was a play-off in everything but name, with the sides producing an enthralling match filled with tough tackles and a high intensity.

A high tackle on former Knight Ben Reynolds laid the field position for Rovers to break the deadlock, with Thomas Lacans firing a bullet pass to Hardcastle, who found it all too easy to score into the right corner.

Petro Nakubuwai was held up and Gareth Gale saw a try ruled out for offside before the hosts found a response, Harris combining with half-back partner Ata Hingano as he jinked his way through from close range.

Brenden Santi was the next to see a try chalked off but York extended their advantage as half time approached, Harris again the orchestrator with a sublime cut-out pass to Joe Brown, who provided an equally stunning acrobatic finish into the right corner.

Featherstone were on top in what proved to be an attritional affair after the break, but after Gale had seen a second try ruled out, they could not capitalise on a trio of goal-line drop-outs.

And in the end they were made to pay by Harris’ individual brilliance as he broke through from the 30-metre line and twice rounded full-back Caleb Aekins to touch down beneath the posts.

Knights captain Liam Harris scored the pick of the tries, with his winner nominated for the Try of the Week.Knights captain Liam Harris scored the pick of the tries, with his second effort nominated for the Try of the Week. (Image: Craig Hawkhead Photography) “The trap defence was good, the tackle management was good, big parts of the game were good,” Ford continued. “But it was just a couple of lapses of concentration.

“Gaz Gale’s was ruled out and they charged downfield on play five – there were a couple of opportunities for us to get the ball back, but we’ve just knocked off.

“Liam’s got a good running game, he’s just seen that opportunity and scored.

“The second one, again we had a couple of opportunities to defend it.

“We know Liam is a running threat, we got our detail wrong around him and he was good enough to post it, but we certainly can be better and learn from it.”