Skolars unable to pull of raid on Knights

London Skolars fell just short of springing a surprise in Betfred League One after narrowly going down 22-20 at home to second-placed York City Knights.

Skolars withstood early pressure from Knights and had to defend for a large part of the opening quarter.

Having held out the visitors, the hosts went ahead just after the half-hour mark with Mike Bishay scoring a penalty goal after James Meadows had been obstructed whilst chasing his own kick.

That spurred York to raise the game of the game as Judah Mazive scored in the right corner, before later Connor Robinson brushed off the defence to score under the posts to make it 10-2 to the away team at the break.

Joe Porter then extended the visitors’ lead early in the second period with a try after Robinson had stolen the ball from Jerome Yates.

Skolars began to fight back, which started when they pushed Ash Robson into touch as he brought the ball back from a high kick.

James Meadows, on dual registration from London Broncos, kicked to the corner for Vinny Finigan to score his side’s first try of the afternoon.

Knights scored again soon afterwards, with Robinson’s pass glancing off Dan Hawksworth’s shoulder, but the ball went to Joe Batchelor who strode over the tryline.

Bishay’s 40-20 kick gave London possession on the 10 metre line, from which Meadows side-stepped past the defence to score under the posts.

Meadows then forced a goal-line drop-out from the next attack, but Bishay’s pass to Yates was marginally forward.

The gap was narrowed to two points when Neil Thorman chased his own chip kick, before passing to Bishay, who dotted down and added the conversion.

With two minutes remaining, Lameck Juma was sin-binned for hitting out in reaction to a rough tackle.

York’s Will Jubb was held up over the tryline, before Liam Jackson put a foot in touch with the whitewash in sight.

Skolars had one last chance to take the game, but with little space on the right as the hooter sounded, Sam Nash’s kick went dead.