Mark Applegarth glad for York Knights’ grit from Halifax win

The Knights currently find themselves on a remarkable run of form that has included 13 straight wins, 11 of which have been in the Betfred Championship, seeing York rise to the summit of the second tier.

That good form continued last Friday with a hard-fought triumph against Halifax Panthers at Bradford Bulls’ Odsal Stadium, as Applegarth’s team achieved the two points after a 19-12 scoreline.

For Applegarth, he’s glad to see that his York players are able to successfully do the gritty work that leads to victories, even if the performance isn’t always where it needs to be.

“That’s the key word, finding a way,” Applegarth said.

“As a coach, as I said the other week, you’re chasing perfection but you’re never going to get it.

“Players are also human, and coming off of a five day turnaround after the Barrow game, we probably thought that we would be fresher than we were.

“There were a couple of tired bodies out there, so it was good that we got a long weekend off so that the lads could recharge and get a bit of time with their families, a bit of down time.

“Hopefully we can get the benefit of that this week.

“I’m definitely proud of the effort that everyone showed, you could definitely see that they care about one another and about the team with how deep they dug to stay in there, and get a few shots to win in the end.

“It’s a mentality thing, it’s something that we pride ourselves on, that mentality side of things.

“We make sure that we never give in, we never say die.

“As long as we’ve got that in our locker, we’re in a pretty good spot.”

A big part of having that ability to win without the standard-setting performance is through the character of the players, something Applegarth praised after the win against Halifax.

The Knights Head Coach had been impressed with the togetherness and spirit shown by the players at Odsal, believing it was a key component in their ability to grind out a result in difficult circumstances.

Applegarth reiterated to the Press: “You need certain characteristics, Clint [Goodchild, York RLFC Chairman] does a really good job with recruitment where it’s not only the ability that we look for, it’s the character of the person.

“We’ve got a real tight-knit group, and that’s why you want a tight-knit group, because when you’re in the trenches and it gets tough, then you see that side of their character.

“We don’t want to be doing that every week, but it’s good to know that you can dig deep and get yourself out of a few sticky situations.

“I think all of the credit has to go to the players, my job as a coach is to give them the ingredients to bake the cake, but they’ve still got to bake the cake.

“They are definitely doing that.

“We’re just lucky that we have a number of players that enjoy leading, there’s no ego’s on them, they know what leading looks like and when they have to be at the forefront or behind-the-scenes doing their job in the machines.

“I’m just really lucky to have a playing group like that, and as a coach, it’s a pleasure to coach them.”

Another positive for Applegarth from Friday’s win was the composure shown by his team against a Halifax outfit that impressed the York Head Coach.

Whilst Applegarth was pleased with parts of the Knights’ display, he did highlight some improvements that he believes his team can make.

He explained: “I’m really proud of the effort, the composure that we showed.

“I thought that Halifax played really well, they really gave it to us, and we had to be patient.

“Especially after that first-half, I thought there were a couple of times where we had done the hard work to earn some more opportunities to throw a few shots on them, and then we came up with a couple of pressure releases that we need to fix up.

“That’s the sort of game that we need to get used to now, when you’re top of the table, everyone wants to knock you off your perch.

“Halifax certainly showed up and gave us that, so I’m really pleased of the resilience that we showed.

“We got a couple of opportunities and we capitalised on that, that’s what good teams do.

“I’m really pleased with that, but we’re under no illusions too, we need to fix up one or two things going into another tough game on Sunday against Oldham.”