AFTER seeing the chance of a fourth Super League victory slip from their grasp, York Knights coach Mark Applegarth admitted: “We can’t keep making life hard for ourselves.”
York were edged out 24-18 by Castleford Tigers, having led 18-12 at half-time.
Appelgarth said: “Congratulations to Castleford. They showed some great character to get that second half over the line.
“We started poorly. It’s just that discipline and composure. Until we fix that up, we will be on the end of some scorelines like that. We just have to get smart.
“We showed great character to get in front at the break. And then we went out second half and didn’t have a good ball set until 22 minutes in.
“We showed some tenacity but we can’t keep making life hard for ourselves.
“We’ve got to stick with it. No one is coming to save us. Until we start respecting the ball and set completion we’ll be in a tricky spot.
“I really don’t think we’re a million miles off. We just do too much of the hard stuff and eventually it takes its toll.
“In that last ten minutes, when we had all the territory, we were all out on our feet. We need to be able to keep more gas in the tank.
“We had four head injuries. Jesse (Dee) will be no good for next week, I’m not sure on Justin (Sangaré), I think Paul Vaughan passed his head test but we’d just needed to be smart with him.
“And then Dave Nofoaluma was down at the end. That’s another. We’ll reassess on Monday morning.”