A RESURGENT Coventry Bears had their four-game winning brought to an end on Sunday at the hands of League One title challengers York City Knights.
Having not won a game since the opening day of the season back in May, the Bears have had an upturn in fortunes and claimed their fourth successive win last Wednesday night with a 64-6 victory over bottom-of-the-table West Wales Raiders.
However, any hopes of claiming a fifth were quickly dashed against York who racked up a 68-6 scoreline to bring an abrupt end to Coventry’s good run of form.
Bears head coach Tom Tsang said: “It was always going to be tough and the scoreline was fair but the lads did put in a lot of effort.”
Having beaten Bradford Bulls the previous Sunday, York were fresh and right at the top of their game, taking just five minutes to score when Josh Jordan-Roberts broke through the Bears’ defence.
Five minutes later it was Roman Dixon crossing the line as Coventry struggled to settle.
Graeme Horne, Joe Batchelor and Connor Robinson each grabbed themselves a try as the York onslaught continued.
Ben Stead did his best to inspire the Bears but the 34-0 half-time score showed the nature of the contest.
In the second half York continued on from where they left off in the first with Batchelor adding three more tries, Jordan-Roberts adding another with Brad Hey, Ash Robinson and Jack Ormondroyd all getting on the scoresheet.
Robinson added 16 points from successful conversions.
However, in true Bears never-say-die fashion, Jason Bass scooped up the ball after a kick and produced a spectacular 65-yard sprint to salvage some pride with four minutes to go.
The conversion by Ben Stead added two more but this had been a tough and tiring game for the Bears after their recent positive run.
Up next for Bears is a home game against Doncaster on Sunday.
