My main thought is that we didn't play all that well but won the points, which is, if we are to believe the clichés the sign of a good team. York, coulda shoulda woulda but didn't.

York's offloading game caused us no end of problems, whilst our more conservative playbook, meant we often struggled to make ground on our sets. I guess we knew JK was a 'steady as she goes' coach but sometimes it's necessary to play a bit more 'off the cuff, imo'. Whilst we struggled to stop York moving forward they, safe in them knowldege that we were unlikely to make any fancy off-loads, were free to let their defenders get set in the line defence without worrying. I guess there is a happy medium and York seemed nearer to it than us, to be honest.

I'd like to Moss's touchdown again. Putting the ball down was the last thing he did and his legs were already down nearer the touchline than the ball, against that I thought York were a bit unlucky with the knock on over the line, certainly from my view I'd have given that, though the ref was looking from almost directly opposite and came up with a different view. It's a game of verty small margins at times. Oh, and Joe Keyes was superb, can't wait tom see him and Chissy together.

I thought the Moss try and the disallowed York try in the first half were both marginal and could’ve gone either way. The one in the second half was 100m away and I haven’t a clue whether it was a try or not. I think York were a bit unlucky and a draw might have been a fairer reflection of the game but it’s been so long since we had a bit of luck I think we’re due a break.

I agree that the York offloads were a problem but our goal line defence was great especially in the run up to halftime when they threw the kitchen sink at us. The highlights for me were Keyes nerveless kicking, the break he made to set up Minchella and the Hallas charge-down. Crossley led the pack very well and I was impressed with Garside’s ability to catch some very tricky drop outs and kick offs.

Going forward I think we can be a lot more slick with our ball movement and it’d be nice to see us try the odd offload too. Chisholm coming back soon should help.

It was great to see the reaction after the win yesterday but that was just game one. There are a lot of tough games ahead against some teams that will try anything to put us off our game. York played the game hard but fair and will be gunning for us in the return. The likes of Doncaster, Keighley, Hunslet and the Cumbrian sides will be very tough.

Altogether a good result, I don't think we will have a stronger test this year away from home. Okay there were things to put right and most of them have been outlined here. But lets not forget this is very much a new team, once again without our number one half back pairing. Someone mentioned playing off the cuff, well, our off the cuff man is still not out there.

My major concern is that our pack still looks like it can be outmuscled. The little barrel shaped prop ran harder and caused more trouble than any of our forwards (Crossley apart) I think he did at least three stints, and was a handful everytime.

Just glad we got the points as I went more in hope than expectation.

As mentioned lack of line speed and offloads caused us the most problems. Personally thought we were under the kosh for 50 mins of the game. Our brightest spells came with the introduction of Pickersgill, Pelts and Vila Halafihi, around 15 mins each side of half time.

Gibson also had a good game. Be good to get Oakes back too because he's a real wingers centre.

What an entertaining afternoon that was. Did the better team lose?
Really enjoyed it and of course winning like that made it better.

I would say yes.

I don't think the better team lost. We worked hard for that win. When we look back on the season in September, that will be one of our toughest games. We just lacked a little composure in attack, so had to rely on a scrambling defence & mental toughness to take the 2 points.

I may be being unfair, but I thought we were second best for most of the match. York played the better rugby and dominated the collision. Our forwards were bullied in the tackle and often found themselves on their back, whereas the York players seemed to more often than not generate a much quicker play the ball. We still lack a couple of big experienced props, and I’d like to see our outside backs take some more resposibility from dummy half in making quick yards. Towards the back end of each half, the York pack really tired, and their wingers carried them down the pitch with some easy metres.

For much of the game we gave them easy metres at ptb by failing to move up. On a short pitch like that they soon transferred from their half to ours and put us under pressure.

Failing to move off the line was where they was making alot of meters. We need to start going up.

If not moving up fast enough off the line is the issue then you would think someone of jK's experience would sort this quickly

yes, you would, and its been said so many times over the last few years.

Watched the video this evening and I thought our defence was mostly good especially on the goal line. Joe Keyes' kicking game was superb. He chased down his kicks well and tackled their backs to put pressure on the kick return. We were a bit unlucky for their second try. Atrocious pass from their player confused our lot and as the ball bobbled on the ground their centre did a great job picking it up and running into space. I imagine in terms of defence it's difficult to react to a poor pass that turns out to ricohet into the hands of the right player!

Great finish to the game. An absolute humdinger. Bet Proper Sports were licking their lips at that as their opening broadcast, although as someone else said that fella they had on was useless. He didn't offer a word of insightful material whatsoever.

Bulls did well to grind that one out. I'm sure our attack will improve. On the whole happy with the way we defended though.

Let's face it this squad is going to take some time to get to know each other so to get the win yesterday was outstanding. The spine of the team has some new players and our best hasn't played yet. I'm sure the attack will come in time.

The defence on the line was very good I thought. Elsewhere we could use a bit more line speed and intensity. Do that and the we'll force more errors. I'm sure it'll come good.

It'll be interesting to see how we go at Cougar Park. We know what to expect from them now.

Look after each other, play our own game and certainly not get involved in measuring our appendage with them.

From watching the video York looked technically smarter and physically had more energy, but the Bulls defence in general was good and as the game went on the Team gelled more. York can consider themselves unlucky but they didn't make the most of their superior advantages, and we had the rub of the green when it counted. Though I did think York wasted a lot of energy with three man tackles compared to the Bulls. While the Ref let the game sort of flow I was surprised there were not more flare ups with all the niggles allowed to go on!
Still it's 2 points in the bag and was earned because the Bulls hung in there against a very solid attack down the middle!

Agree about York. Adam Robinson is definitely the type of prop we could do with. But their confidence throwing the ball about was great to see from a league one side. The York press were making issues of our celebrations and saying it wasn't warranted against a part time side but to my eyes there was plenty of SL experience in there! All in all a fantastic game, Joe Keyes really took the game by the scruff of the neck, was greatto see as all we have really seen from his days at London too was a running game. The talk of Lilley needs to be quietened for me as I feel him and Chis will be perfect. The main thing is over the last 3 seasons we would not in a month of sundays won that game. The Kear effect bearing fruit already

WTF is wrong with celebrating? It showed how good the team spirit is. It was a hard fought game irrespective of opposition. It’s not as if there was anything unsportsmanlike

Agreed aboit Keyes taking the line on more. Didn't really see it last season (unsurprising considering the h0us3 shot he took from Walshaw) hope it continues from him.

Regarding the celebrating, i thought it was fantastic. Not the moment we won it at the end, you'd expect that, but the way we celebrated forcing a knock-on, Steve Crossleys tr my etc. We looked like a team full of spirit and is really in this together which we will need in this division.

Too right.

They deserved to celebrate. That York team was the better one for large parts of the game and they had a few current and former SL players in their side too. Our squad is mostly part time so not sure what the complaints are about unless it's a few sour grapes.

We have a lot of new faces in the side so it's good we got the tough game out of the way for a couple of weeks and we can now work on those areas that need attention. We've a long way to go and there will be ups and downs along the way but we're at least on the up again.

York Press need to let us know the formula for deciding if we are allowed to celebrate a win. Against superleague or championship teams plus Keighley and Workington we are, against York and Donny we can a little bit and against Coventry we have to remain utterly silent with a poker face. Presumably the fans better not clap either. Utterly moronic thing to say.

^This

The team we faced had three full-time Hull KR players in it, plus the likes of Cockayne and Horne who were, until very recently, full-time SL players.

How many FT players were in our starting 13? Perhaps 7 or 8? Not so much of a difference when you look at it

The team spirit is very good within the squad. A lot of them are very good mates

My lad goes to Keyes's house for tea as well, I never get an invite

You should keep an eye on the company your lad is keeping - ask Keyesy to join you at yours.....

Just a quick follow up to this, I have a couple of extra programmes left over (me and my partner bought a few extras), will do them for £1 posted. Just drop me a PM if you want one. Thanks and best of luck for the rest of the season - don't think you'll need it though!