Mark Applegarth’s verdict as York Knights thrash Doncaster

Birthday boy Scott Galeano stole the headlines with a 17-minute second-half hat-trick, alongside doubles from Liam Harris and Ata Hingano, and further tries from Paul McShane, Sam Cook, Kieran Hudson, Kieran Buchanan and Harvey Reynolds in a performance to remember at the LNER Community Stadium.

Applegarth had been expecting a tough battle against Doncaster’s sizeable pack, but though the sides were evenly matched in the opening 10 minutes, it was one way traffic thereafter as the Knights seized complete control and moved themselves up to fifth.

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“We spoke about how clinical we needed to be,” the Knights boss explained. “We needed to be ruthless; we knew the danger that Doncaster could pose.

“I think that’s probably the best we’ve been all year in terms of keeping our foot on the throat and being ruthless when we’re on the front foot.

“We were on the end of one of those scorelines at the start of the year and we know how much momentum can work against you, so I’m really pleased with that dominant performance.

“But we won’t be getting carried away because we’ve got a very tough game coming up on Friday night against Featherstone.”

York made another characteristic fast start, with McShane twisting his way out of a tackle on the line in the eighth minute before Jordan Thompson sent the returning Hingano through a gap just after the quarter-hour.

Interchange hooker Cook crashed over from close range, then Harris reacted quickest to Hingano’s grubber and Hudson brought four men with him across under the posts just minutes into his competitive debut for the club.

And there was still time for Hingano to make it 34-0 at the break after surging through a gaping hole in the Dons’ defence.

Scott Galeano bagged a hat-trick on his 27th birthday. (Image: Craig Hawkhead Photography) The response Doncaster sought after the interval never materialised, and instead they conceded a further twice within five minutes of the restart.

First, Harris again reacted quickest to dot down Hingano’s grubber, before Galeano profited from a neat left-side shift from a penalty in a move straight off the training ground.

The Dons did stem the tide momentarily, but Galeano soon had his hat-trick with long-range efforts from 50 and 85 metres respectively. Buchanan then caught the visitors cold from a quick tap-penalty before Reynolds crashed over after the final hooter.

Applegarth though does not want his side to get too caught up in their four-match winning run, warning: “It’s a long season, and you’ve got to ride [the winning runs] when you’re on them, haven’t you?

“The important thing, as I’ve said all along, you never get too high, and you never get too low. You just keep a level head about things – sometimes it’s off the back of a heavy defeat and other times it’s off the back of a heavy victory.

“There’s still areas of that game we can improve. I thought that second half there was a period in the middle where we probably got a little bit scratchy. I’ll hold my hand up to that.

“I don’t know if I put one too many changes on and I got one of them wrong. When I brought someone off, I didn’t name a nine, so we need to look at that.

“I’m really happy overall with it, it was probably our most dominant display of the year. But as I said, we won’t rest on our laurels, we’ll be straight back at it on Tuesday ready for Featherstone on Friday.”

The Knights were on the end of a hiding at Oldham back in Round One, and Applegarth has warned anyone can beat anyone in the Championship. (Image: Craig Hawkhead Photography) The head coach though maintained that no Championship team are unbeatable, with the Knights having been on the end of a 50-4 hiding at Oldham on the competition’s opening weekend back in February.

“It’s a long season and the beauty of the Championship, as I’ve said all along, is that anyone can beat anyone,” he admitted.

“Oldham are a shining example of that this year. They’ve signed some absolute quality players, and they’ve ground out another tough result today against Featherstone.

“It’s fair to say we probably didn’t show up that day, but at the same time I thought they were excellent.

“I’ve just spoken about momentum, and I don’t think Doncaster are as bad a team as the scoreline suggests, obviously everything’s gone our way this week.

“Doncaster, they’ll be looking at that video on areas they need to improve, but that’s the beauty of the Championship this year. There’s a lot of teams that can put those sorts of scorelines on you if you’re slightly off the mark.

“We’ll enjoy the result, I’m really happy with the team and how they’ve gone about their business today, but there’ll also be an err of caution that we won’t be getting carried away with ourselves. We know we’re going to have to back that up and go into another tough match against Featherstone on Friday night.”