YORK City Knights are attempting to arrange a swap deal involving half-back Phil Hasty and Featherstone Rovers counterpart Josh Weeden.

The Press understands that Hasty has been made available for transfer and talks are ongoing about a straight swap for Weeden, the highly-rated Aussie who has been one of Featherstone's star performers since he moved to Post Office Road in 2005.

Hasty, a crowd favourite at York as well as Hull KR and Hunslet before them, was officially suspended by the Knights ten days ago for "internal disciplinary reasons" and did not attend yesterday's game at home to Widnes Vikings, even though that initial ban ran out on Thursday.

It is still not known what those disciplinary reasons were, though The Press believes rumours that the player has been sacked are incorrect.

Weeden has also been the centre of controversy at Post Office Road after an apparent behind-the-scenes bust-up involving a reported changing-room incident during half-time of Rovers' National League Two game at Keighley last week.

The Press believes both clubs are happy with a swap deal though the switch still depends on the two players agreeing terms.

Other clubs are thought to be keeping close tabs on both situations and it is unlikely that either player will stay at their respective clubs for long. Both are under contract, though, and will probably command a fee.

Knights club captain Lee Paterson played at half-back alongside Scott Rhodes yesterday after boss Mick Cook dropped previous incumbent Paul Thorman, and he scored two tries in a Press man-of-the -match performance.

Visitors Widnes, however, won 40-18 to leave the Knights still without a National League One win in seven attempts.

Nevertheless, the Knights, always big underdogs against the full-timers, restored some pride with a spirited display a week after the disappointing loss at Batley.

Coach Cook kept the team in the changing-rooms for nearly half an hour after the game, reflecting on the match and looking ahead to next week's crucial bottom-of-the-table four-pointer away to Oldham.

"It was about staying positive and being tight as a group," said Cook of that post-match conference.

As for the performance, he said: "We started really well and took the game to them.

"We've made plenty of line breaks but did not get a right lot for them, sometimes because we were squeezing passes out when we needed to put them in the bank and build pressure.

"Widnes have a host of big names, they're a dangerous side with plenty of pace and power. We defended well at times but on the day we left it a bit late."

The Knights had two tries disallowed and twice were denied certain scores when Mark Blanchard was seemingly tackled without the ball. Cook, though, would not get drawn into criticising referee Ian Smith.

"In any game you're going to get a shedful of decisions that don't go your way," he said.

"You've got to make your own luck. You can't always look at the referee and I'm not going to comment on those (decisions) I always look at the video first. We're not going to moan about the referee we need to be more clinical as a team."