York Knights off the mark as Batley Bulldogs stumble

BATLEY BULLDOGS 10 YORK KNIGHTS 23
KEITH McGHIE, Fox’s Biscuits Stadium, Sunday

A BRACE of tries in each half helped York pick up their first league victory to help them climb away from the foot of the Championship table.

The Knights, with three straight league defeats behind them, delighted a sizeable following from North Yorkshire by managing the game admirably while condemning Batley to their first defeat, albeit after just three games.

The threadbare Bulldogs were able to field loanees Brad Martin, who had scored twice on debut in the previous league match against Widnes, Luke Thomas and Elliot Peposhi, with dual-registered Jayden Myers being made available by Wakefield for his second game in a Bulldogs’ shirt.

York also had several regular players missing with Levi Edwards, who spent much of 2023 on loan at Mount Pleasant, strongly rumoured to be heading for St Helens and adding to injured Will Dagger (quad) and Ata Hingano (broken hand) as notable absentees.

Winter acquisition Paul McShane filled in for Hingano in the halves for the first time, with Sam Cook starting at hooker, while strong running Jordan Thompson made his 100th appearance in a York shirt.

Batley, defending up the slope, held out the Knights’ advances for nearly 25 minutes, with an early Joe Brown break from a wickedly bouncing high kick offering the main danger to a home side who managed to keep the ball in York territory for a good proportion of the first half.

Joe Law finally broke the deadlock when exploiting an overlap to score out wide.

Liam Harris failed to add the conversion but went on to land a trio of goals and a field-goal.

He then skipped through three tackles in midfield to score, this time adding the goal to make it 10-0 at the interval.

Joe Arundel made a dangerous break after the restart but several times, and now with their familiar gradient advantage, the Bulldogs seemed reluctant to try to force repeat sets on the last tackle.

Gravity eventually paid dividends as another Arundel half break was supported by Robbie Butterworth, who had built up enough momentum to win the footrace to the corner.

Woods was wide with the subsequent kick.

York crucially responded after Butterworth appeared to be taken out in the air while fielding a high Harris bomb and spilled possession.

From the resultant set Jack Martin reached out from a tackle, having been surrounded by Bulldogs’ shirts, to score between the posts.

Oli Field might easily have sealed matters on the hour when set free down York’s left by Law, but he was pulled back for a forward pass.

Brad Martin notched his third try for Batley to haul them back into the game with 12 minutes to play, Woods converting despite a slip as he approached the ball.

A Harris field-goal with five minutes remaining pushed the game virtually out of reach before Oli Field strode through some tired late tackling to put the icing on the cake for the visitors.

GAMESTAR: Liam Harris kicked sensibly with and against the slope and managed the game impeccably for the Knights.

GAMEBREAKER: Harris’ field-goal killed off Batley’s belief before Field’s try confirmed victory.

MATCHFACTS
BULLDOGS
1 Robbie Butterworth
19 Jack Render
28 Jayden Myers
3 Ollie Greensmith
2 Joe Burton
6 Ben White
7 Josh Woods
8 Adam Gledhill
23 Jonah Parsons
13 James Brown
32 Brad Martin
4 Joe Arundel
14 Brandon Moore
Subs (all used)
9 Alistair Leak
35 Luke Thomas
16 Michael Ward
33 Elliot Peposhi

Tries: Butterworth (53), Martin (68)
Goals: Woods 1/2

KNIGHTS
2 Joe Brown
34 Ben Jones-Bishop
3 Kieren Buchanan
20 Oli Field
4 Joe Law
9 Paul McShane
7 Liam Harris
8 Jack Martin
19 Sam Cook
33 Mitch Clark
11 Jesse Dee
12 Connor Bailey
13 Jordan Thompson
Subs (all used)
14 Taylor Pemberton
15 Jack Teanby
10 Brenden Santi
24 Harvey Reynolds