Optimism and sport tend to go hand in hand, and that is certainly the case at Baildon.

The Jenny Laners' record so far this season in all matches is played five, drawn one, lost four, but try telling Baildon's coach Kenny Pollard that better times aren't around the corner.

Baildon are suffering from a crop of injuries and unavailabilities on top of players having left just before the start of the campaign.

Pollard, an upbeat sort of person whose sense of humour is never far below the surface, said after this latest defeat: "If we had needed a fourth replacement it would have been the clubhouse cat!"

More seriously he added: "If we get Phil Wilson, Dave Wilde and Richard Kendall back we will start to go places.

"In our team for this match hooker Simon Fitt is recovering from flu and fly half Andy Whitley has a hernia problem. Also we have one or two irons in the fire regarding signings."

As for the match, Pollard said: "It is the first time we have tried to play an expansive game. In the second half we looked as if we could threaten when we threw it out wide.

"We decided to break the game up after the interval so we didn't get drawn into a battle with the big fellows in their pack."

It was, as Pollard suggested, a game where Baildon threatened rather than delivered, but it is also true that Knottingley are still unbeaten.

It looked as if the home side were going to suffer an even heavier defeat when they went 8-0 behind inside ten minutes and then had No 8 Gary Strauss sin-binned for stamping.

Fly half Will Stansfield landed a penalty for Knottingley, and Chris Charlton scored a try after linking with right winger John Alexander.

Baildon's tackling was not clinical enough, and it seemed as if their skipper and centre Chris Smithies would pose their only threat.

But they hung on until Strauss, who had cut a lonely figure standing behind Knottingley's posts, returned.

Also some of the best home moves in the first half were stopped by referee Tony harland (Yorkshire Society), who tended to blow and bring play back rather than seeing if an advantage accrued.

However, Baildon's wingers, brothers Nick and Matt Oddy, both had their moments before half-time.

Although Baildon had plenty of possesssion in the second half it tended to be in their own half, and flanker Jim Hutton needed to pull off a fine ankle-tap tackle to end a Stansfield run.

The best home attack of the match came in the 53rd minute, prop Danny Helstrip starting it off with a fine burst down the left centre. His pass found Matt Oddy, but he was well tackled by Knottingley full back Matt Haigh.

The home side paid dearly when Whitley missed his touch from a penalty in the 55th minute, centre Mick Ash running the ball back and winger Andrew Alexander scoring. Stansfield landed a 74th-minute penalty to complete the scoring.

Knottingley were lucky in one sense though. They should have had John Alexander sin-binned for obstructing replacement back Matt Bradney.