Nick Wright previews this weekend's clash between York City Knights and Hull FC
Alex Reid looks at whether the once ever-present appearance of English clubs in the later stages of the Champions League is set to become a thing of the past
Craig Dobson looks at QPR's decision to sack Neil Warnock and replace him with Mark Hughes
James Tompkinson reviews an excellent pre-season victory for the York City Knights against Yorkshire rivals Leeds Rhinos
Attacking from the off, York dominated Newcastle for the entire game. In their first home game of the season, York excelled in both attack and defence, showing no signs of being disheartened by losing their opening fixture to Sheffield Hallam three weeks ago by a margin of 45 points.
York were very quick out of the blocks, as captain Dane Vishnubala opened the scoring with a three pointer, and quick, efficient offensive passing created a 13-2 lead after 5 minutes. Throughout the game Newcastle struggled to find an answer to the York offense and in particular to Edward de Moraville who consistently scored in attack, whether from under the basket or around the key, and in defence shut down any hope of Newcastle attacking through the post positions.
By the end of the first quarter, York were winning 20 - 6 and a cross team effort brought the score up to 28 – 9 after 15 minutes of play, despite David Nalton running into foul trouble. By half time the score was 34 – 15, with de Moraville on 12 points.
Defensively, York played with an excellent zonal system which Newcastle had real problems breaking down, and a constant rotation of players kept the team fresh and playing at or near 100%. Notably, Deniz Ekren consistently came away with steals and forced Newcastle turnovers, and as a whole the team displayed a good defensive awareness from start to finish. One fake though did see Serge Mazodila launching himself into the air and then tumbling back down onto the head of the Newcastle player, much to the amusement of the crowd.
At the start of the second half, club president Marcus Johansson came alive and started to hit his rhythm, adding another ten points to the final score. Meanwhile, the unstoppable de Moraville continued to excel in attack and defence, contributing a couple of good quality blocks which intimidated the opposition, as well as ten more points of his own. Indeed, the Man of the Match scored enough to finish the game with a double double – 22 points and over 10 rebounds.
Vishnubala added another three to his total of 10 points for the game and Nalton managed to stay in the game, finishing with four points. Newcastle did find some rhythm towards the end, especially through their point guard, who with one excellent move managed to floor Johansson, but it was too little too late.
The game ended 67 – 34 in York’s favour, a scoreline which fully reflected the nature of the game. York dominated from start to finish and fully earned their win in the first home game of a promising season.
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