HEAD coach James Ford said York City Knights would rally around Ryan Mallinder after the back-rower suffered a suspected broken leg during the “Friday Night Magic” League One victory at Newcastle Thunder.

Ford also praised former Knights skipper Lee Paterson for coming to Mallinder’s aid on the pitch, on a night when Paterson’s Newcastle side were seen off 36-4 by a back-to-form York team.

The 27-year-old Mallinder had to be stretchered off late in the first half and was taken to hospital with a suspected fractured tibia, the Knights having already lost Tyler Craig to a hamstring injury.

But the team dug deep in the rain to end a run of two games without a win, in front of a bumper 3,033 crowd in the curtain-raiser to Super League’s Magic Weekend on Tyneside.

Said Ford: “Ryan’s as tough as they come and (him staying down) was not a good sign. The boys out there heard a big crack.

“We’re worried, but we will rally around him and support him. We’ll help him as much as possible and if the supporters could do the same that'd be great.”

On York-born veteran Paterson, Ford said: “Lee’s a good guy. He plays the game to a good level and, even though he put himself about, he wouldn’t want to see anyone get injured.

“It was great to see him get the medical team on as quickly as possible. Hats off to him.”

As for the match itself, which avenged a 32-14 defeat in the corresponding fixture last year, Ford said: “I’m very proud for many reasons.

“Newcastle have been going pretty well and we knew we’d have our hands full against a big, physical team, but we competed, no, dominated the game.

“Occasionally I thought the official let them out of their corners with a couple of decisions against us but we were strong mentally and physically to defend our goal-line so well.

“I got into the half-backs a bit last week (after the draw with North Wales), about them adapting. But we changed our plan here with the constant rain and the fact we had to change our centres and back-rowers (because of injury), which limited some of the stuff we wanted to do, and Danny (Nicklas) and Jonny (Presley) were excellent. They made some very good decisions.”

He added: “We weren’t far away against North Wales and here there was more about us and we were more ruthless.”