HEAD coach James Ford has dismissed any bogey team tag as York City Knights again head up to Barrow looking to end an awful run of results against the Raiders - as well as the Cumbrians' proud home record.

No team has beaten Paul Crarey's men on their own turf since Toulouse Olympique turned them over in May 2016 on their way to promotion last season.

But York's record is particularly woeful - no victory at Craven Park since 2004 and no victory over the Raiders anywhere since 2007, a sequence which continued earlier this season with a 28-0 reverse on the opening day of the Kingstone Press League One campaign followed by a controversial Challenge Cup fifth round loss at Bootham Crescent in April.

A number of refereeing decisions that day left fans wondering whether there actually was a jinx but, asked once again about this particular winless run which now stretches to 12 games, Ford said: "I'm not aware of it, to be honest.

"We're going into this like any other game.

"We've got a lot of respect for Barrow. We need to be at our best for 80 minutes to win. It doesn't matter about previous games or however many games it is (since beating Barrow). It just matters how we perform. Previous games doesn't come into it."

Barrow's 30-28 victory at Newcastle Thunder last Saturday night - albeit when left hanging on having led 30-6 - assured the Raiders of a top-five play-off place with four games to go.

It also put them just two points behind big title favourites Toronto in the race for the sole promotion place, even if

nobody at Craven Park is yet talking about actually overtaking the big-spending Canada-based full-timers.

Ford, either way, believes they still have plenty to play for - not least finishing second in order to bag home advantage in the play-off semi-finals and final.

"They will be coming out as hard as they can to finish above (third-placed) Whitehaven," said Ford, whose side sit fourth, some seven points behind, with a four-point buffer in the play-offs places.

"They're a good team with a proud coach. They will want to play as well as they can and finish as high as they can - and we wouldn't want it any other way.

"We wouldn't want to go up there and beat a Barrow team that's just going through the motions. We're looking forward to the challenge."

* WORK commitments have seen Mike Sunderland step down as Barrow chairman, with fellow director Allan Park taking over the role.