Pressure is on admits Yorkshire Carnegie chief Bryan Redpath after defeat to Doncaster Knights

Dean Schofield of Yorkshire Carnegie is caught in a double tackle from Doncaster Knights.

They had a glorious chance to rise above their South Yorkshire rivals up to second place in the Championship when leading  28-27 after David Doherty’s second try in the 71st minute at Castle Park on Saturday.

Doncaster’s Tyler Hotson had been yellow-carded but, despite that man advantage, the visitors still managed to succumb to a last-minute try and lose 34-28.

“There were two exits in the first half that gifted them 10 points,” said Redpath.

“One kick went straight out and another one we miscued but, ultimately, it’s about 80 minutes.

“They had a guy in the bin and we didn’t capitalise on that at the vital time. They had a lucky bounce for that try right at the death but there were two successive penalties before that which we didn’t need to give with them being down to 14 men.

“That’s probably the crux of it; we’d got back in it to lead 28-27 and a chance to manage the game and win but, ultimately, we didn’t. It’s not gone our way again.”

It was their seventh league loss of the season and all of them have come by six points or less.

Ironically, though, having garnered two bonus points and seeing Bedford Blues lose 25-18 at home to Jersey, Carnegie actually moved up a place to third.

Jersey are up to fifth, 12 points behind Redpath’s side, and 11 adrift of Bedford, as they look to gatecrash the top-four.

Carnegie host leaders Bristol in their next game on February 28 and Redpath admitted: “The pressure is on us now.

“I understand that today was a big game for bragging rights as well as everything else but it’s not all gloom and gloom.

“We played some good stuff at times but I thought Doncaster played better than us throughout the game.

“We’ve an opportunity in two weeks’ time to play Bristol and then five more games after that.”

Carnegie lost captain Chris Jones to a dead leg at half-time with England Under-20s duo Jack Walker (ankle) and Josh Bainbridge (broken foot) missing after suffering injuries on international duty the previous week.