Joe Brown had opened the scoring for the Knights on his 150th career appearance, with a Ben Jones-Bishop double then handing them a 16-0 half-time lead.
However, Featherstone turned the match on its head in a blistering 18-minute spell at the beginning of the second half, with a tiring York having no answer to their attack as they defended set after set in their own half.
And though Liam Harris did bring the scoreline back within two with eight minutes left to play, the visitors’ comeback came too late to take a share of the spoils.
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“I’m disappointed,” said Applegarth. “I thought that when we went 16-0 up at half time, we’d done all the hard work.
“We spoke about the response that Featherstone were going to bring after half time because we knew they were a good team with those sorts of capabilities.
“The first 20 minutes of the second half absolutely killed us. We looked like the team that were chasing the game with the way we were defending, and there’s a valuable lesson to be learned there.
“But you’ve also got to give credit to Featherstone and the way that they managed to swing that momentum around and get on top of us.
“We’re thoroughly disappointed with it. We scored 16 points in that first half, and we shouldn’t be throwing away leads like that if we want to achieve our goals.
“But as always, there’s a valuable lesson to learn from it.”
But it was out wide that they found the most joy as Jones-Bishop touched down twice in the right corner, first from Harris’ floated cut-out pass and then after fast hands from Kieran Buchanan.
York squandered a fine chance to extend their lead a minute after the break off the back of a Featherstone error, but that was as good as it got until the final 10 minutes.
Rovers seized the initiative, with Connor Jones rising highest to twist over from Ryan Hampshire’s kick on the last before Caleb Aekins danced around some patchy defence to add his name to the scoresheet.
Danny Addy sent Hampshire through a gap to put the hosts in front for the first time on 55 minutes before King Vuniyayawa brought up 24 unanswered points for the hosts with a powerful run.
The Knights finally saw some good ball position inside the final 10 minutes, with Harris ghosting in from 40 metres in a fine individual try, but with Hingano stopped inches short from the line and Jones-Bishop running into traffic on the right wing, their hopes of victory ebbed away.
“Where we’ve been undone is we started that second half very erratically. We were a bit loose in terms of our contacts, there were a few past our inside shoulder, and we gave a few sloppy penalties away.
“If you gift a team of Featherstone’s capabilities, especially with Rocky Hampshire playing how he did there, with that sort of field position, they’re going to punish you. That’s exactly what we got today.
“I think we got exactly what we deserved. Credit to Featherstone, and we’ve got to lick our wounds so we’re ready to fight next week.”
Applegarth believes it was a mixture of poor Knights tackling and capitalising on quick play down the slope that saw Featherstone complete the comeback.
“First and foremost, I’ll have a look at my messaging at half time. I’ll make sure that what I said I got across clearly and make sure that there was no complacency in there.
“We were bits and bobs with how we were going about our systems and Featherstone fully capitalised on that.
“Momentum’s a funny thing in a game, and normally we’re a good team that can wrestle back that momentum. I just thought we left it a bit too late. If we’d have played how we did in that final 10 [minutes] at the start, we’d have been fine.
“I don’t think we touched the ball for a good 10 or 15 minutes at the start of that half and a team with Featherstone’s strike power coming at you, it’s taken its toll, hasn’t it?”
