BEARS head coach Tom Tsang is targeting four wins from the club’s remaining five matches after watching his side slip to their 13th defeat of the season in the Kingstone Press League One.
Tsang’s side came up against a very spirited York Knights at the Butts Park Arena on Sunday and fell to a heavy 38-10 defeat.
At times they looked dangerous and should have perhaps punished their opponents but they were unable to get into their own attacking half and at times were led down by individual errors which proved to be the difference on the day.
“On the face of it, its another big loss, but to keep things in perspective York are the form team of the competition and have scored over 50 points against their last tree opponents,” said Tsang.
“We matched them for the first half-an-hour and for the last 20 minutes of the game with strong spells in between.
“Again our attack was a little disjointed but we had another new halfback pairing who we will look to keep together now for the rest of the season.
“We had a couple of debutants in Elliot Holton and Dan Price who both looked good and will only improve with more games in the side.
“We have targeted four wins from our remaining games which should see us finish at the top of the Southern clubs and that aim is very much alive.”
Both sides were evenly matched early on and despite looking the more likely to score, the Bears found themselves behind on 20 minutes.
The first try of the match was scored by York when Josh Tonks burst through the Bears line and the conversion was successful from full back Jordan Howden.
Moments later the visitors were in again, this time a break from Howden down the right side allowed him to set up Liam Cunningham who crossed for York’s second.
York were over again thanks to a brilliant run from Jonny Presley who saw a gap from 35 metres out and passed to Smith who fed Brad Nicholson who crossed over the line.
The visitors started the scoring in the second half with Smith crossing under the sticks and an Ed Smith try put York out of sight.
Despite being behind the Bears were still giving York a great game, and they almost crossed over with a great dive from Dylan Bale but he was held up by the line.
Carter then scored at the other end before the hosts found a bizarre breakthrough when Joel James picked up a drop and scored, and moments later he sent Dan Parker over the line for two late consolation tries.
