Improved York City Knights please Ramsden

York City Knights assistant coach Mick Ramsden was consoled by an improved performance at home to a powerful Halifax side, despite a 24-18 defeat.

It needed a last-minute try by Sean Penkywicz to deny the Knights a draw in their second Championship game.

"We've worked really hard all this week with a bit of soul searching with a few of them and a lot of video work," Ramsden told BBC Radio York.

"We changed the structure around a bit and some of those changes worked."

Ramsden was impressed with the performance of Ben Hellewell who was asked to play in an unfamiliar defensive position in order to accommodate Jordan Tansey at full-back.

"Ben Hellewell has showed a fantastic attitude this week, we asked him to do a job on the right side in defence and he did a good job for us today," he added.

"Tansey came into the attack very well, and the kicking game improved."

Chris Green and Jack Lee scored first-half tries for the Knights, and Alex Benson's late try looked like earning a draw, but it was not to be.

The Knights, who have now lost three successive matches, entertain amateur side Hull Dockers next Sunday in the Challenge Cup.

"We need to keep firing, we need to build on today and be very clinical in what we do," Ramsden concluded.

"We just need to back that performance up with another good, determined performance."