The Phantom Horseman

Yeah, we are missing Jordan Williams at the moment too who is a regular in the 17. Akauola has literally only played about 20 minutes in the last 3 months so was never likely to be much of a factor, we were a bit surprised we managed to get 25 minutes out of him, and we just don't have the same depth in our squad as one or two other teams such as yourselves this year.

Yes, that's a good assessment. York got over the top of Fev and won the arm wrestle comprehensively. As you say, it's not about fitness (because Fev came from 16-0 down to win at POR and were better in the 2nd half than the 1st at Wembley) - but York wore Fev down on Sunday and Fev had to do too much tackling. You're right about King V, his presence wouldn't have changed the outcome at all but he has been our best forward this year and especially in contact, he doesn't lose many collisions.

I don't disagree with that, I don't think he set out to injure Wynne, he was just trying to prevent a try, but he did slide in knees first in a reckless manner. For me it should have been a yellow card and definitely a penalty kick in front of the posts after the (unsuccessful) conversion because it was a foul in the act of scoring a try. As Paul Cooke explained in his interview, it actually impacted Fev quite a lot, not only because Wynne going off meant a reshuffle with Jones having to move from 9 to centre, Jubb returning earlier than anticipated and Glover switching to the wing, but also because the 4th official didn't acknowledge that Fev should have had a free interchange (because the incident went on report) until after McShane's try around 12 or 13 minutes later. He'll probably escape with a Grade A or B grading, but will get an extra 3 points because the opponent had to leave the field. Under the current rules, that probably means a ban of 1 game at most, but it depends on how they interpret it. Fine commentary as always, btw.

I think most of us lot recognise that, thankfully, you're not remotely representative of most York fans that tend to show up online, especially on these forums, where there seems to be a reasonable amount of respect between supporters of the two clubs.

No, I strongly disagree, the advantage is massive. I've heard the thing about having to run uphill in defence many times but that pales into insignificance compared to the impact the hill has in terms of helping to win the collisions, which comes down to basic physics. I did some number crunching a couple of years ago based on a decent sample size of results and concluded (from memory) that the hill at Batley was worth 12-14 points on average. That's not to say there aren't occasional games where other factors outweigh its impact but they're pretty rare.

I know Widnes beat Toulouse and Barrow beat Bradford but for me the biggest surprise came this morning when I watched the Batley v Sheffield highlights. I'd seen that Sheffield had led 14-0 before Batley scored 24 unanswered points and assumed this was a typical tale of the slope changing fortunes at the Mount, so couldn't believe it when I saw Batley were playing uphill in the 2nd half.

They are, by a long way. We have seen some really rubbish performances by Fev this year - Hunslet was the most recent one, but other games such as Sheffield and Bradford at home come to mind too , I'd give those performances about 3 out of 10. For me we were probably 6 or 7 out of 10 today which just wasn't good enough against arguably the best team in the league on recent form.

Fair play. York much the better team today. Maybe we'll get another chance to meet in the play-offs, but we have plenty of work to do before then.

Interesting post-game interview with Paul Cooke who readily stated that he thought York got over the top of us and that we didn't do enough to win the game and that "York were better than us". However unusually for Paul who I don't think I've ever heard be critical about any officiating after one of our games, he was aggrieved about one particular and unusual issue. When York's full back went into Connor Wynne knees first (which to my mind should have been a penalty in front of the posts after the conversion as well as a card, but that's another matter), Cooke pointed out that the 4th official didn't know the incident was placed on report. Wynne had to be substituted - he could barely walk and was in lots of pain after the game according to Cooke - and I believe the rule is that an injured player can be replaced following foul play or potential foul player (as indicated by the incident going on report) without losing one of the 8 interchanges. Cooke's grievance was that the 4th official seemed not to know that the incident had gone on report and didn't initially grant the "free" interchange. This meant that Cooke thought he was down to 1 interchange and he pointed out that there was one player that he wanted to take off after a very long stint but felt unable to because it would have been his last interchange. That player (who Cooke didn't name but I'll suggest was Pat Moran) missed a tackle that led to McShane's try with 15 minutes left when the score was 12-8. Moran had done a really big stint in that heat (coming on after 17 minutes and not going off until 65 minutes) and played very well, but I was wondering in the few minutes before that try why he was still on the field after such a long period because he had run himself into the ground and was out on his feet, I'm pretty sure Springer would have come back on in his place earleir if we knew we had 2 interchanges left not one. According to Cooke, after McShane's try the 4th official then indicated that actually we COULD have an interchange back because of the incident going on report, so I'm not at all surprised Cooke was aggrieved.

It was Hampshire that kicked the 40/20.

The fact that you think comparing fans' behaviour to that of players is very troubling. I doubt that many people on this forum would disagree that we have had plenty of issues with our fans' behaviour at different times, and it's been brought up multiple times on here. But players goading fans is out of order, and it's frankly juvenile to try and use fans "spouting all sorts" and "gesticulating" as a justification.

You think it's okay for players to start goading fans? Give your head a wobble lad.

A good summary, I agree with everything you have said there. Although we have beaten them at our place and only lost in golden point at Wembley, they're better than us at the moment, and as mightyship says they're probably the best team in the comp at the moment, certainly in terms of consistency. Agree with the comment about taunting the Fev fans, there's generally a fairly respectful relationship between the clubs and there's no need for that.

Suspect that in 27 degree heat we'll get 1 short cameo from Akauola and some long stints from some of our other middles. Think we're up against it today, but would love to be proved wrong!

That would be a huge blow. He's been our best forward over the last couple of months in my opinion especially in his defensive contact.