HEAD coach Dave Woods praised the work ethic in his York City Knights side as they twice came from behind to beat Workington 18-14 in a thilling finale and maintain slim hopes of a top-three finish in Championship One.

Woods’ injury-hit outfit trailed 10-0 and, with the clock running down, 14-12 to the Cumbrians, before hooker Jack Lee got over the whitewash from acting-half for a superb match-winning try three minutes from time.

It came at the end of an indifferent performance by the Knights, but the result took them to within five points of third-placed Blackpool with three games to go after the Panthers lost at Oldham. Blackpool still have a game in hand, though, as do Rochdale, who stayed only a point behind York.

Said Woods: “We will take an ugly win rather than a flashy loss any day. As ugly as it was, we will take it.

“I was real tough. They were doing us in every department of the game. We weren’t smart about what we did or how we played. We did not respect possession and Darren Holt (Town half-back) had a good kicking game.

“But the pleasing thing was we worked throughout the 80 minutes and did not stop even though we weren’t playing well. We still kept going, still worked and worked, and did not let our heads drop, and in the end we got a result because of it.”

Workington were unhappy with referee Dave Merrick for sin-binning second-row Mike Whitehead in the second half and for allowing York substitute Steve Lewis’ try, while they were down to 12 men, to stand.

Town had also had a length-of-the-field effort by Scott Kaighan chalked off in the first half.

But the Knights had three tries dubiously disallowed at key moments, and Woods said: “Chris Thorman scored, Nathan Freer was certain he scored, and he (Merrick) pulled us up for crossing when it was a well-executed move that saw Danny Allan score.

“Workington can complain but at the end of the day the referee makes decisions and, right or wrong, we’ve got to live with them.”

The Knights went into the game missing strike players Lee Waterman and big Brett Waller, both out injured, as well as another key prop, Alex Benson, who completed a two-match ban.

Fellow prop Jon Fallon’s season ended several weeks ago due to injury, and this absentees list – Nathan Freer and Jack Stearman were the only reglar props available – saw trialist front-rower Callum Dinsdale given his semi-professional debut.

Woods said: “We knew we didn’t have big props and Workington were a big side. We wanted to keep it out of the middle.

“But we tried to offload in a couple of silly positions and we didn’t respect possession enough, and that’s what hurt us.

“I thought Callum went well for his first run at this level. He struggled with the pace a bit, but he looked all right. Nathan had a big stint up front and Jack Stearman did well again.”

Waterman and Benson and maybe hooker Paul Stamp, who has been out since May 23 with injury, could return for next week’s trip to Swinton.

Woods reiterated that promotion was possible, even after such a mixed display. He added the Knights’ hopes might be boosted by the recruitment of two players from a fellow Championship One club before Friday’s transfer deadline – as predicted by The Press last week.

He said: “We need to get some bodies back, work hard in training. The potential is there, the players are there. We just need to be smart about what we’re doing and how we’re doing it.”