BOSS James Ford reckons his York City Knights side might benefit more in the long-run from defeat at Oldham than from their unbeaten run in June.

Having risen to third in Kingstone Press League One after four straight wins, the Knights slipped back to fifth - holding on to the last play-off place on points-difference - after crashing 34-12 to the leaders.

A number of second-half errors helped the hosts to score five tries without reply, including three in the last ten minutes to seal matters.

York also lost The Press Player of the Year frontrunner Greg Minikin to a hamstring strain midway through the first half and finished the game with 12 men after Ben Dent departed with a head injury with all their interchanges used up.

However, Ford is hopeful his troops can learn lessons and bounce back better.

"You don't always learn from winning," said the head coach. "You often learn more from defeats and, to keep progressing, we can use this as a springboard to kick on.

"I don't know if it's possible to identify what one thing caused the errors. It's a combination of factors - possibly fatigue, possibly the (wet) conditions, possibly a lack of concentration. We will use this to make sure we grow and learn.

"There were two good teams and I don't think the scoreline reflected the performance.

"We were pretty good in the first half and deserved our (12-6) lead and could have been a bit further in front.

"We probably didn't score enough points when we had control of the game but you've got to give credit to Oldham for their defence.

"In the second half we gifted them too much possession and position with uncharacteristic errors.

"We should have been starting sets with good territory but early errors did not allow us to ask questions of Oldham in their third.

"For 70 minutes we did a good job of competing with one of the best teams in the league away from home. We weren't too far away, even if the score has got away from us in the end.

"The boys' effort was commendable and they stuck together in the second half, even though it's easy to fall out when things don't go your way."

Ford's men have yet to beat play-off rivals away from home this term. On their away record of won three, lost four, he insisted: "It's nothing to worry about at this stage. There are numerous good teams in this league knocking each other week by week.

"We need to focus on (next week's home match against) Gloucestershire All Golds and make sure our performance is good."

Six of the Knights' next seven games are against teams in the bottom half but, asked if Minikin's injury had come at a "good time", Ford said: "There's never a good time to pick up an injury. Hopefully it will not be too serious and he can be back in a couple of weeks."

After Dent's departure, Ford admitted there was confusion in the dugout over why the Knights could not replace the full-back on the old blood-bin rule.

He said: "We had used up our interchanges when Ben took a knock around the head. There was confusion between the fourth official and referee over whether we could replace him but apparently the rules have changed and it would class as an interchange.

"It did not change the outcome of the game, though. The game was up by then."

That outcome could have been different had Jack Blagbrough's second-half try stood, but referee Dave Merrick deemed the prop had been held up. It would have put York 18-6 in front but instead Oldham soon equalised.

Ford said: "Jack said he had scored. It's obviously difficult to rule on that when there's no big screen or in-goal touch judges and there are bodies all around.

"It affected the momentum of the game. We were in control for the first 15-20 minutes of the second half. The turning point was our errors that invited them downfield."

Asked about Merrick's display overall, he said: "Even the best referees in the world are going to miss things.

"Dave Merrick is probably the best referee in this competition but he's going to miss things and he probably did, but there's no intimation that it's cost us the points."