ANDY SMITH is set to make his York City Knights bow tomorrow - as he attempts to turn the clock back and prove himself on the pitch again.

Smith, the former London Broncos and Bradford winger, retired from professional rugby league at the end of 2012 after a fraught season with Dewsbury.

However, he continued playing and coaching in the amateur game with Eastmoor and, having initially joined the Knights Foundation as a community officer in February, he soon began taking part in first-team training - impressing enough to win a playing contract.

The 31-year-old hard-running outside-back is now set for his debut as the Knights host Gloucestershire All Golds looking to continue putting pressure on League One leaders Toulouse ahead of their top-of-the-table showdown a week today.

His debut follows that of loanees Sam Smeaton, Adam Robinson and Harry Tyson-Wilson at Oxford last week - all three of whom will also get their first run-outs at Bootham Crescent tomorrow (3pm), despite boss James Ford ringing the changes again.

Knights player/assistant-coach Mark Applegarth said of former Super League star Smith: "It's been a few years but he has got very good pedigree and this is a good chance for the coaching staff to have a look at him and a chance for Andy to put his hand up for a regular starting spot.

"It will be interesting to see how he goes but he has trained well and he's obviously looked after himself since his 'retirement'."

He added: "There's no pressure on him and he'll be given time.

"We're under no illusions, though. Gloucestershire are a good team and there's no pressure on them. It won't be easy by any means.

"But we also have to focus on ourselves and on getting things right for the business end of the season.

"Andy, like all the boys, can play a part in that and I'm sure he'll do everything that's expected of him."

Ford, having swapped his team around for last week's win at Oxford, will make up to nine changes again this weekend against another expansion club, with several big guns returning after rests.

Back come Tommy Saxton, Ed Smith, Jonny Presley, captain Jack Aldous, Josh Tonks, Kriss Brining, Russ Spiers and, if fit, Richard Wilkinson, all adding to Andy Smith's inclusion.

Danny Nicklas, hitherto York's only ever-present, is rested for the first time after suffering a dead leg at Tilsley Park so Tyson-Wilson forms a half-back partnership with Presley.

Also rotated out are James Morland, Adam Dent, Pat Smith and Brad Hey, while Ross Divorty is now sidelined by a broken thumb, probably for the season, and Matty Dale also goes onto the treatment table as his tight groin flared up again.

Applegarth explained the changes, as expected, were all part of the plan to build up to the Toulouse match, the trip to Keighley, and then the Super 8s, when the top eight in the table break off to vie for the play-offs.

He said: "It's another chance to freshen things up and give lads a chance to stake a claim for a shirt not only for Toulouse and Keighley but the Super 8s."

On the new half-back pairing he added: "We brought Harry Tyson-Wilson in to put pressure on Danny and Jonny. Most positions throughout the team have four or five people vying for a spot.

"We'll give Harry another game to get used to how we play, and it also allows us to rotate again. There's a lot of pressure on the half-backs each week and this allows them to recharge batteries mentally and physically."

Gloucestershire have won only once since mid-March, including losing 58-14 at York in the iPro Cup semi-finals, but several results have been close - among them their lost 30-18 defeat to North Wales last week, sealed only by a last-minute Crusaders try.

Coach Lee Greenwood said: “It could have gone either way. We let ourselves down in the first half and were 22-6 down. I made a couple of changes and we really came back into it.

“We put North Wales under all sorts of pressure but we let them off the hook.

“There’s some promising signs. We’ve made a lot of changes recently. It’s a bit disjointed at the moment but we know once these guys start playing together we’ll come out of it stronger."

He added: “We can’t do much worse at York than last time. We’ll see if we've improved. No one is expecting anything of us so we’ve got nothing to lose.”

Knights: from B Dent, R Wilkinson, Saxton, E Smith, Smeaton, Buchanan, A Smith, Presley, Tyson-Wilson, Carter, Aldous, Applegarth, Tonks, Robinson, Crowther, Brining, Spiers, Anderson, Emmett.

All Golds: from Kislingbury, Newton, Barlow, Whittel, Mitchell, Goodall, McClean, Kenga, Allison, Williams, Hyde, Bryan, Reece, Agoro, Evans, Purslow, Cowburn, Parry, McComb.