RED-HOT York City Knights roared into next Sunday's LHF Healthplan National League Two Grand Final yesterday in record-breaking fashion.

Their shock 70-10 hammering of in-form Workington Town was the club's biggest win in their two-year existence and saw Mark Cain score a club record five tries in a match in the 12-try rout.

Both he and coach Richard Agar reckoned it was the best they had played all year - with Cain saying he had a feeling beforehand that they were set for a big performance.

"You got that feeling in your guts," he explained. "You can tell everyone is for up for it. People didn't need to say much - everybody could sense that everyone was ready.

"Training had been a little bit off. Whether it was nervous energy or what I don't know but they weren't the best sessions. Maybe players were over-focused, but you turned up yesterday and you could tell we were ready for playing."

He added: "We defended well in the first half and scored a few tries and in the second half it was the closest we've come to playing perfect rugby."

Cain had entered the fray ten minutes in, replacing the injured Jim Elston at loose-forward - Elston suffered a bang to the hip but hopes to be fit next week - and, after having a try ruled out immediately after coming on, scored straight after that, added two more around the hour-mark and completed his five-star haul with a late double.

"I was in the right place at the right time," he said modestly. "It was just one of those days."

Agar was trying to keep his glee in check for the big week ahead.

"I'm delighted on the inside but I'm trying to keep level-headed on the outside because we've got another week of hard work to come," he said.

"But I'm over the moon that we're all going to have a big day out."

The Knights led 26-6 at the break before streaking clear with seven second-half tries.

Agar said: "The scoreboard proved it was emphatic. I thought our defence in the first half won us the game.

"Their strengths are their off-load game and on the back of that they have players who can cause problems but we spoke about that and how to combat it.

"Our ball control in the first half was 64 per cent and we thought we could improve that. In the second half it was 100 per cent, and if you defend like we did you will get some good field position and possession.

"We felt we probably lacked a percentage in our game at times over the last month. We'd train really well and seem focused but go out and under-perform physically and emotionally.

"We put a big emphasis on that emotion factor this week and for the first time this year we've played for the full 80 minutes."

How to get your final tickets

York City Knights face Halifax in the LHF Healthplan National League One Qualifying Final (effectively the NL2 Grand Final) at the 11,000-capacity Halton Stadium, Widnes, for a place in NL1 next year.

The NL1 and NL3 Grand Finals will also take place that day in a triple-header, for which York have been allocated 650 tickets. They went on sale at Huntington Stadium (tel 01904 656105) today, with more tickets available from the Rugby Football League Hotline on 0870 9901313.

The NL1 and NL2 finals will be screened live on Sky Sports.

The NL3 final between Coventry Bears and Warrington-Woolson Rovers kicks off at 12.45pm. Knights v Halifax kicks off at 3pm. And Leigh v Whitehaven in the NL1 Grand Final for a place in Super League follows at 5.30pm.

Updated: 10:08 Monday, October 04, 2004