MARK APPLEGARTH was delighted to send retiring prop Paul Vaughan out on a high as York Knights secured a tenth-place finish in their debut Super League season.
The 35-year-old fittingly scored the game’s final points with the first field-goal of his career in the dying minutes of the Knights’ 35-16 win over Bradford, who will take home the wooden spoon as a result.
“It was a great way to sign out,” admitted Applegarth, whose side ran in six tries against the Bulls, including one from veteran winger Ben Jones-Bishop on his 400th career appearance.
“It was a really fast game at the start, and we knew Bradford would come out hard with what was at stake.
“We just spoke about staying composed, staying direct and being clinical with our defence, and I thought we definitely did that.
“That first 20 minutes seemed really fast and we iced it – it was probably the best we’ve been in the opening of a game all year, so that was pleasing to see.
“I’m really pleased overall.
“When we played through them and tried not to go around them too early, we were very effective. The only time we let them back into the game was when we got a little bit pass happy, so there’s a good lesson to learn there.
“But the most pleasing thing for us was we wanted to secure that tenth spot and sign off Bish’s 400th game with a win and sign off an absolute stellar career of Paul Vaughan’s with a win.
“And Denive Balmforth, who has been on loan with us all year (from Hull FC) and who has been absolutely class, we wanted to sign him off with a win too.”
York faced Bradford just five days after their comeback win at Catalans Dragons, a performance Applegarth believes left them in good stead.
“It was a weird feeling all week because it was a short turnaround,” he explained.
“You get a feeling some weeks as a coach that your team is on; we only trained once on Tuesday and spoke really well in it.
“Sometimes you speak well and it doesn’t back up with actions, but when they trained well, I could just tell they were on it and locked in, and that showed on the field.”