YORK Knights boss Andrew Henderson believes fans had “every right” to vent their frustrations towards him during yesterday’s defeat against Whitehaven.

The head coach was met with jeers and boos from the home crowd as he made his way across the pitch and down the tunnel at half time - a move relatively unheard of at the Knights.

Yesterday’s 36-16 defeat compounded a dismal start to the Betfred Championship season that sees Henderson’s side only kept off the bottom of the table thanks to a superior points difference over newly-promoted Dewsbury Rams.

READ NEXT:

Many hoped that the Knights could claim back-to-back wins at the LNER Community Stadium after their unlikely triumph against Bradford Bulls a fortnight prior, but any chance of a vital two points had slipped firmly from the hosts’ grasp before the interval.

Edene Gebbie brought Whitehaven onto the scoreboard early on, with Guy Graham, Ryan King and Rio Corkill also adding their names to the scoresheet as the Cumbrians ruthlessly punished the Knights’ woeful first-half showing to lead by 26 points at the break.

That was further improved upon by Joey Romeo and Lachlan Hanneghan inside 10 second-half minutes, but despite Joe Brown, Jimmy Keinhorst and Tom Lineham bringing the hosts onto the board late on, they never came close to clawing back the 36-point deficit.

Having seen their chances of points all but extinguished by half time, Henderson admitted that he sympathised with the fans’ reaction.

“At the end of the day, I feel their frustration,” he stated.

“They’ve got every right to vent their frustration. They pay their hard-earned wages to come here and watch the team play with passion, with pride, with honesty, and they didn’t get that from the team in that first half.

“They’ve got every right to vent their frustrations and they’ve got every right to direct it at me. I’m the head coach, so I’ll cop that, no problem.”

Whilst the half-time message was to undoubtedly tidy up their performance, Henderson’s disappointment was evident as he reflected on how his side had instead further shot themselves in the foot.

“We defended the first set, and we gave a penalty away on play five. Talk about trying to hurt yourself even more.

“It’s death by 1,000 cuts.”

Will Dagger’s needless sin bin for dissent in the aftermath of Romeo’s try also did little to help matters.

“It was for dissent, but again that’s the frustration, and we give another penalty away because we make a knock-on and somebody throws it into touch,” Henderson continued.

“That’s the frustration the players have at the moment, but ultimately, they’ve got themselves into that position.

“We’ve got to be more honest with ourselves and say that’s just not good enough.”