St Helens beat York to keep pace with Leeds at top

Betfred Super League

St Helens (16) 40

Tries: Leyland, Dagnall 2, Walmsley, Welsby, Davies, MacDonald Goals: Hastings 6

York (10) 16

Tries: Dee 2, Galeano Goals: Hunter 2

St Helens kept pace with Leeds at the top of Super League with a hard-fought victory over York where the scoreline failed to do justice to the contest.

After an opening try from Bill Leyland, Saints quickly moved into a 16-0 lead after 19 minutes with two tries from Owen Dagnall.

But York rallied impressively and got back in the game as Jesse Dee crossed twice in six minutes to leave the visitors trailing 16-10 at the break.

And that was how it stayed into the final quarter before Alex Walmsley scored a game-breaking try and Saints then sprinted clear with further scores from Jack Welsby, Jake Davies and Nene MacDonald.

York had the final say with a deserved consolation from Scott Galeano.

It was a brave effort by the Knights who threatened to level the game at the start of the second half but they ultimately fell to a seventh defeat of the season to stay 11th.

Saints will be relieved to have come through a tougher test than many anticipated before their Challenge Cup semi-final against Wigan next weekend.

They finally broke York's resolve when Tristan Sailor's superb 40-20 led to Walmsley barging over from close range.

It seemed to knock the wind out of the visitors as they then failed to deal with Jackson Hastings' chip that led to a penalty in front of the posts and the goal pushed the lead out to 14 points.

Welsby was then given space on the right and evaded two weak tackles to find the tryline before Davies collected a loose ball to sprint 80 metres to add a sixth try.

Another chip over the defensive line fell kindly for Saints and they moved the play quickly to the right wing for MacDonald to go over.

But York's efforts were rewarded with a third try in the final minute as Paul McShane hoisted a kick to the right corner that Galeano collected to touch down.

St Helens: Sailor; Feldt, Robertson, MacDonald, Dagnall; Lomax, Hastings; Walmsley, Leyland, Lees, Wright, Whitley, Klemmer

Interchanges: Welsby, Delaney, Stephens, Davies

York: Nofoaluma; Bennison, Buchanan, Harrison, Galeano; Hingano, Hunter; Martin, McShane, Vaughan, Foster, Dee, Cook

Interchanges: Balmforth, Va'a, Sangare, Littelwood

Referee: Liam Rush.