SIMON SMITH: Fine margins cost us huge victory

We were expecting a tight affair and that is exactly what we got.

I can’t fault the effort of the players, they really did put 100% into the game, but York managed to score a couple of tries when they were on top and we just weren’t clinical enough when on top.

We knew York would improve after the break, and they did just that.

They barely got out of the their own half in the first 20 minutes and I expected them to improve after half-time, and they did.

I think we were right to kick for goal in the first half and get our noses in front, we are comfortable playing into a breeze and felt we could manage the game.

York really came at us second half and it was only really at the end when we started to get some fluency about our play that we showed what we can do and they couldn’t live with us.

I have to say as well that I was very impressed with the referee’s performance in general - it is very easy to tell that he has officiated at a higher level of rugby union.

I told him after the game that while I thought he had a good game and we’d love to have him back, the yellow cards to James Perrett and Matty Young really came at a bad time for us and I thought they were quite harsh.

I couldn’t have asked for much more from my players. The back-row were exceptional, although to be fair the front row were also outstanding.

We scrummaged well, and while we still need to work on our line-out, we also managed to disrupt theirs too.

The young players at this club make me incredibly excited for the future.

Young Ben Martin really is turning into a wonderful player and has a great future ahead of him if he continues to improve.

Alex Rowley came into the side on Thursday night for his first game of the season and he was magnificent.

Given all that, I thought Matty Jones was our man of the match.

He moved from tighthead prop to loose-head and was up against an experienced player who has plyed his trade at a higher level and he held his own.

We go to Bradford Salem full of confidence and aiming to get back to winning ways.