Ratcliffe’s praise for home win

10:19am Monday 19th May 2008

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Assistant-coach James Ratcliffe was delighted his York City Knights finally "got the monkey off their back" - but he would have preferred a less nerve-racking finale.

The Knights beat Keighley 40-30 in a Huntington Stadium thriller yesterday to record their first home win of 2008, but to do so they had to withstand a Cougars fight-back which nearly saw the visitors snatch the National League Two points.

As it was, Gareth Greenwood scored an injury-time try to seal a third victory in four games and give the high-flying Cougars only their second defeat of the season.

Joked Ratcliffe: "I did not have a grey hair until I came here.

"I think the players do it on purpose because of the amount of stick I give them during the week."

The Knights built a 34-12 lead with 50 minutes gone before Keighley, with only one previous defeat this term, responded with three quick-fire converted tries to look on course for victory.

Ratcliffe added: "It was another game of two halves. They're not top of the league for no reason - they're a good team - but we showed a lot of desire to get the result.

"We could have imploded, but we showed desire to score the first try of the (second) half and the last try of the half.

"It's the little things you do right that bring you success, and the willingness to be unselfish. People like Dave Buckley and Ross Divorty got the rewards by being unselfish, pushing up in support.

"It's about being honest, and the guys are putting their hands up and being honest, in training and on the pitch. It showed yesterday with a real honest performance."

The Knights had built a match-winning 44-0 lead at Swinton last week before allowing the Lions to score five tries, and a similar turnaround yesterday nearly cost them.

"It's a switch-off," said Ratcliffe. "We spoke about it at half-time. I asked them are we a 40-minute side?'. We do switch off a bit - that's what young players do. But the more they play and learn, the time they switch off gets shorter and shorter."

He added: "It wasn't just the tries Keighley got, but also how we invited them up the field.

"We should be able to defend our line anyway, but it's also the way we're inviting them up by silly errors or penalties."

Ratcliffe was also disappointed with the way his side allowed Jamaine Wray to make yards from dummy-half, despite being warned about it pre-match, and with the three tries conceded in that eight-minute second-half spell which gave the Cougars the sniff of victory.

However, his side enjoyed a 98 per cent completion rate in the first half and it was as high as 86 in the second.

"There were a couple of forced errors, instead of playing to the structure, and we went off the rails a bit," Ratcliffe said.

"But these young players bring enthusiasm and eagerness. They're young men and young men take challenges on. They hit the challenge head on yesterday and we will challenge them again next week. We asked the players to play with tempo and they've done that.

"We want a team of winners - not just one winner. If we win, we win together and if we lose we lose together."

He added: "We've got the monkey off our back now we've got our first home win, and there was no better way to do it than by beating the team at the top of the table.

"It's fantastic for the lads and it's fantastic for the supporters. They've been patient, and hopefully we can go on to give them something to clap about for the rest of the season.

"Fans in all sports can be fickle. If you're winning, more will turn up.

"Hopefully, we can get a couple of hundred more down for the London Skolars game next Sunday."