YORK Knights could not repeat the trick of last season’s Betfred Challenge Cup Fourth Round triumph over Sheffield Eagles as they fell to a 32-16 defeat in a game marred by controversy and ill-discipline.

Five cards were shown by referee Liam Rush in an eventful first half that descended into utter chaos at the LNER Community Stadium, with the ever-reliable Jordan Thompson twice sent to the sin-bin.

And York were left fighting even more of an uphill battle when former Wakefield Trinity full-back Will Dagger was sent off for an alleged headbutt on his home debut shortly before the break.

But unlike 10 months ago, the Knights could not find the winning formula against Mark Aston’s side despite a spirited second-half performance, with ex-Knights Matty Marsh, Ben Jones-Bishop and Anthony Thackeray among those to cross the whitewash to seal victory for the Eagles.

That now leaves York Acorn as the city’s sole representative in this season’s competition, after their thrilling 32-28 triumph over fellow NCL side Wath Brow Hornets at Thanet Road yesterday afternoon.

Andrew Henderson made 10 changes from the side that started the Knights’ Third Round victory at Dewsbury Rams a fortnight ago, handing marquee signing Richie Myler his Knights debut alongside Liam Harris in the halves.

Dagger was given a second start of the season at full-back, whilst centres Jesse Dee and Jimmy Keinhorst also returned to the fold.

Aston made a host of changes to his Eagles, seeing Marsh and Glover return to York for the first time since their off-season moves to South Yorkshire, whilst the impressive Eddie Battye lined up at prop.

Both teams made a scruffy start to proceedings, with Cory Aston pushing a Harris grubber into touch before a big hit from Keinhorst saw the ball slip from Alex Foster’s grasp just outside the 30-metre line.

The Knights took full advantage, with Harris laying the ball off for Brenden Santi to race through a gap in the Sheffield defence and touch down just to the left of the posts five minutes into proceedings.

Dagger arrowed through the conversion with ease, but it was not long before the Knights were pegged back from a mistake of their own.

Having gifted the Eagles field position from a play-the-ball error, it was Marsh who inevitably came back to haunt his old side with a sharp burst of pace to cross into the left corner.

York’s ill-discipline continued, and they found themselves down to 12 men just before the 15-minute mark when Jordan Thompson was sent to the sin-bin following a late shot.

Sheffield duly capitalised on their man advantage, a neat show of hands sending Matty Dawson-Jones across on the left edge on his 200th career appearance.

Things went from bad to worse for the Knights in the aftermath, Australian centre Dee the next to find himself in the sin-bin for a late shot on Marsh, helped in no part by his protestations towards the officials.

Keinhorst rolled back the years to bring down loose forward Titus Gwaze inches from the whitewash before the Knights were gifted back-to-back penalties within 20 metres of the Sheffield line, but they could not capitalise on that field position, nor on consecutive errors five minutes later.

But after Kris Welham became the third player to be sin-binned on the half-hour mark for a hold on Dagger, York finally took their opportunity, Keinhorst collecting Myler’s bullet pass before turning his defender and grounding the ball.

Dagger restored the hosts’ advantage from the tee, but that proved to be his last involvement.

Bundled into touch as the Knights looked to exploit their right edge, the full-back was shown a straight red card for an alleged headbutt in the melee that followed, leaving the Knights to play the remainder of the match with a maximum of 12 men.

Things worsened still two minutes later when Thompson was sent to the sin-bin for a second time for holding, with Joe Farrell then reaching out a hand to put Sheffield back in front from close range.

Trailing by four points at the break, York came out well in the second half, but could not take advantage of consecutive goal-line drop-outs after Thackeray had been trapped in-goal.

However, Sheffield always looked an attacking threat, and though Myler was alert to stop Marsh from running onto a Jones-Bishop kick, they could not keep the visitors out for much longer.

A penalty for offside presented Battye with the opportunity to add his name to the scoresheet just after the 50-minute mark, and the Eagles were across the whitewash again from the restart, Jones-Bishop running onto Marsh’s stunning cut-out pass to touch down into the right corner.

York though continued to battle, with Conor Fitzsimmons held up on the line before Oli Field saw Myler’s low pass slip through his fingers as he looked to pounce.

The Knights lost Italian prop Santi to a calf strain shortly after, but a late try did eventually come their way, a neat show of hands seeing Myler feed Dee on the right edge to dive into the corner.

And they had a fantastic opportunity to further close the gap from a flowing team move two minutes later, but Farrell narrowly beat Myler to Joe Brown’s grubber.

Instead it was the Eagles who wrapped up the scoring in the dying seconds, Thackeray bundling over beneath the posts to leave Aston with the simplest of conversions.

The Knights will be hoping to bounce back from their defeat when they host Oldham in the Quarter Finals of the AB Sundecks 1895 Cup next Sunday (3pm).

YORK KNIGHTS: Dagger, Brown, Dee, Keinhorst, Towse, Myler, Harris, Santi, Daley, Fitzsimmons, Field, Bailey, Thompson.

INTERCHANGES: Ta’ai, Williams, Teanby, Reynolds.

TRIES: Santi (5), Keinhorst (31), Dee (70)

GOALS: Dagger 2/2, Harris 0/1

SIN-BINS: Thompson (14, 37), Dee (16)

RED CARDS: Dagger (35)

SHEFFIELD EAGLES: Marsh, Jones-Bishop, Welham, Glover, Dawson-Jones, Aston, Thackeray, Battye, Halafihi, Dickinson, Foster, Farrell, Gwaze.

INTERCHANGES: Clark, Murphy, Liu, Roberts.

TRIES: Marsh (11), Dawson-Jones (15), Farrell (38), Battye (50), Jones-Bishop (55), Thackeray (79)

GOALS: Aston 4/6

SIN-BINS: Welham (30)

HALF TIME: 12-16

POINTS SEQUENCE: 4-0, 6-0, 6-4, 6-8, 6-10, 10-10, 12-10, 12-14, 12-16, 12-20, 12-22, 12-26, 16-26, 16-30, 16-32.

YORK’S STAR MAN: Jack Teanby. A strong performance from the interchange prop, who proved a bit of a handful for Sheffield’s defence.

REFEREE: Liam Rush