YORK KNIGHTS coach Mark Applegarth has Batley firmly in his sights as plots a points pick-up and a pull away from the lower reaches of the table.
While LNER Community Stadium partners York City are pushing near the top of football’s National League under Adam Hinshelwood, Applegarth’s charges have yet to win a Championship game as they prepare to visit the Bulldogs on Sunday.
The former Wakefield chief had hoped his side could follow up an 1895 Cup first-round win at home to Halifax with another victory when the fixture was repeated in the Championship seven days later.
However the Panthers edged an 18-10 triumph which put them top of the table with a maximum six points and left York on zero and above Hunslet on points difference alone.
After reaching last season’s play-off semi-finals, it’s not where Applegarth or York’s supporters expected a reshaped side to be.
And the coach has vowed to use a blank weekend brought about by Challenge Cup elimination at home to Hull KR to get some issues “fixed up” and further bed in recent signings from Sheffield, prop Mitch Clark and winger Ben Jones-Bishop.
“We’re nowhere near where we want to be as a team, and we’re focused on where we need to improve,” he said.
“The key word at this stage is frustrating. We had wanted to build on the 1895 Cup win, but Halifax came out of the blocks quicker than we did.
“We knew they would be hurting after the previous week, and in the first half, they just wanted it more than us.
“While we didn’t help ourselves with some poor discipline and handling errors, we looked disjointed and jittery, so I have to look at that.
“We didn’t really kick into gear until the last 20 minutes, and by that stage we were chasing the game. We should have started it with that sort of energy and tempo.”