GARY THORNTON insists “there is no ill-feeling” despite being told he is to be replaced as York City Knights boss following their play-off exit.

Speculation is rife that James Ford, Thornton’s assistant who has now retired as a player, is to take the helm, with confirmation expected soon. The club have not yet commented.

Thornton has paid the price for failing to get the club promoted back up to the Championship – even though they finished top of Championship One, with the 52-year-old shortlisted for the league’s Coach of the Year award.

His two-year contract runs out next month and it has now been confirmed he will not be given a new deal. He was instead offered a director of rugby role with a sizeable pay cut but turned it down.

Rumours have been circulating for several months that Ford was to be handed the reins, yet Thornton would not be drawn on whether that made his job or the club’s promotion push more difficult.

Instead he told The Press he had loved his time at Huntington Stadium and was sorry to be leaving.

He also said the Knights faced a good future if they could keep their young team together, but he reckoned a lack of experience in the squad – which the club did not rectify despite his requests for older heads - proved costly in the play-offs. Ford himself pulled out of Sunday’s line-up on Friday night after tweaking a hamstring in training.

“I have tried to remain professional and dignified throughout,” said Thornton of the rumours.

“I had a job to do and I worked hard and wanted to get York promoted.

“John Guildford (chairman) told me he had two plans – one if we went up and one if we didn’t. If we went up, I would have been offered a one-year deal with the idea that James would then progress into the job. If we stayed in Championship One, he could only afford to keep one of us.”

He added: “I thanked John for giving me the opportunity to coach at York. There’s no bitterness. I know what constraints John’s worked under in terms of the budget. There’s no ill-feeling.

“This team has an average age of 22. I said to John this was a two or three-year plan with a team this young, not one year. He wanted to get promoted with a bunch of kids. I was adamant we needed more experience.

“Even so, at the start of the year I knew what the objective was and that was to get promoted. I know the club needed that extra central funding (from being in the Championship) to go forward as a club.

“In sport you’re judged on results and at the end of the day we didn’t get promoted.

“The one inevitability about being a coach is that you don’t stay in a job for ever.

“I’ve had a fantastic time at York, despite the challenges.

“This is a terrific group of players and it’s with a heavy heart that I leave.

“People at the club have been great to work with. I wasn’t allowed to bring my own back-room team in but I can say people like Mick Ramsden (assistant) have been brilliant – he’s a smashing bloke and really supported me 100 per cent.

“There are some really nice people around the club, and people in the York media have been great. I have thoroughly enjoyed it, even with the challenges.

“I wish we had been able to see the job through. I think if John can keep the team together, the best is yet to come from them.”

Asked about the director of rugby offer, he added: “I never know what that role is. But, no, I want to stay as a coach.”