HEAD coach James Ford admits the pressure is now on him to get his selections right as York City Knights eye top spot in Kingstone Press League One - with a particular headache over his half-backs.

The Knights stayed second in the table with last Sunday's 56-12 win over Gloucestershire All Golds, but they now go to leaders Toulouse this weekend and then to iPro Cup final conquerors Keighley Cougars a week later for a tough finale to the regular season before the competition splits into two for the Super 8s.

Ford has often thanked club chiefs for helping bring in a squad that are genuine promotion contenders, aided in recent weeks by the arrival on loan of Adam Robinson, Sam Smeaton and Harry Tyson-Wilson. And he acknowledges the onus is now on him to get tough selection and tactical decisions right as the season heads towards crunch time.

"The board and the owner have let me build a very good squad, probably the best York have had for a number of years," he said.

"The pressure is on me. I've got to make the right calls at the right time and both myself and my team will work very hard to make sure we do that."

One of those selection headaches this weekend is whether to continue with Tyson-Wilson at half-back after the Hull FC teenager scored a hat-trick and eight conversions last week, taking his points tally to 44 in his two appearances. Alternatively Ford could well revert to the tried-and-trusted combination of Jonny Presley and Danny Nicklas, who have taken turns to have a rest over the past fortnight against minnows Oxford and Gloucestershire.

All three are in the 19-man travelling party.

He said: "I need to have a real good look at the evidence of the last two weeks, take the opposition into account and get everything in context and come up with the best combination for Toulouse."

Asked if goalkicking would come into his thoughts, Tyson-Wilson having so far had a much better success ratio than Nicklas, he said: "I'll take everything into account, every little aspect, otherwise I wouldn't do the team or club justice.

"We will look at everything and come up with a the best 17 for the game."

Ford added: "Toulouse are an attacking team who play on the front foot. They're a team spectators want to watch, very entertaining with the ball, but they do give teams opportunities because they can make errors.

"We have to go there with a plan, execute it and, when they do make errors, capitalise on them."

Ford rested players for the past two matches, both relatively straightforward victories, following on from a tough schedule of games. He is likely to go strong this weekend but will be without a few first-teamers who cannot get today off work to travel - Smeaton, Matty Dale, Richard Wilkinson and, now, Harry Carter.

He explained of his rotation policy: "There's an awful lot of intensity in how we play and train, and to play 20 or 30 matches like that is a big ask.

"We're going to have to make changes to keep people fresh. We've got a talented squad and a pretty healthy squad at the minute with people itching to get out there.

"We do need to build some consistency in selection but at the same time we have to bear in mind it's not the play-offs yet.

"They're a very together group. The boys we've brought in have come from good environments too and they add to that. There's a lot of communication between them and everyone is pulling in the same direction."