York City Knights will turn their attention back to Championship 1 after losing their Northern Rail Cup quarter-final to Keithley Cougars.

The Knights lost 32-6 with new loan signing Danny Allen going off early in the game with a shoulder injury.

Coach James Ratcliffe told BBC Radio York: "The frustrating thing is we all we could compete and take victory.

"The league comes up now and we've got two long travels so hopefully we can get the points and get some momentum."

The Knights, who are fifth in Championship 1, travel to London Skolars on Saturday before facing a trip to Geteshead on 26 June.

Ratcliffe believes the loss of Allen at the weekend contributed to his side's defeat.

"We knew the strengths of Keighley around the pack and we wanted to get around the edge of that pack," he said.

"Because we lost a playmaker, a ball-handling loose forward, we had to tighten things up a little bit but we tried opening in the second half.

"We had a lot of joy but we couldn't finish them. More than anything we put the loss down to some pretty poor last tackle options.

"We've had fantastic completion rate in the second half but yet we've not finished with anything.

"That was the difference between ourselves and Keighley."

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version