HEAD coach James Ford admitted his York City Knights players might have had next weekend’s big one against Bradford Bulls on the brain as they laboured to victory at lowly London Skolars.

The Knights led 16-2 and 22-8 at New River Stadium but in the end were holding on to a 22-20 victory.

The result nevertheless put Ford’s men joint-top of Betfred League One, albeit for less than 24 hours, with Bradford having since beaten Hunslet 36-16 to reopen their two-point lead.

The top two meet at Odsal next Sunday in a title showdown, even with eight more games to follow.

“It will be human nature to some extent for players to be thinking about next week’s occasion with it being so vital,” said Ford, referring to his team’s display in the capital.

“I don’t think it was a case of us being really poor. We were a bit off in attack but London were pretty good and an 80-minute game has taken nearly two hours, which shows you how slow it all was.”

Ford’s team selection had seemingly taken the Bulls match into consideration, with Sam Scott and Andy Ellis rested and none of the dual-reg Hull KR players involved.

Included in that DR number was full-back Will Dagger who had been poised to make his fifth appearance for York and thus become eligible for the rest of the season, only to suffer a calf injury in training.

The cut-off point for five appearances has now passed, meaning 19-year-old Dagger cannot now join Will Oakes, Matty Marsh, Josh Johnson and Jordan Walne as eligible dual-reg players hereon in.

Ford said: “Will’s potentially a good player and it would have been good to have the option of including him.

“But I do think we’ve got some good players in that position who I think at the minute are higher up the pecking order.”

Key packman Graeme Horne also stayed on the sidelines in the second half.

Said Ford: “We chose not to put Graeme back on, just to be mindful of next week.

“He’s an important player and we didn’t want to risk losing him for the Bradford game.”

The reshuffle after Dagger’s late withdrawal saw Liam Jackson play for the first time in two months.

Said Ford: “We played Liam out of position on the wing. It was a challenge for him and he will learn from that and improve because of it.”

Ford, meanwhile, was “not overly unhappy” with his team’s display and intimated the officials allowed the game to be played too slowly.

“London were really good, although the tempo was incredibly slow, which helped them,” he reasoned.

“We thought they would tire but they worked really hard for themselves and their coach, who should be proud of their efforts.

“They did lots of good things and gave themselves a shot at winning at the end.

“Defensively for large parts we were pretty good. London didn’t look like troubling us much shifting the ball.

“Offensively, we couldn’t generate any tempo or get into a rhythm. London had a plan to stay in the game and they did it really effectively.

“With the ball we were scratchy but there was lots of effort. I’m not overly unhappy with what my side has done. My concern is more about the speed of the game.

“We were doing what we could to speed it up, but the (referee’s) identification of wins and losses (in a ruck) was not great, and you can’t do a lot about players going down to get a rest.

“I understand why teams and players do it, but it doesn’t help to create a spectacle.

“We were in control from minute one but London did not go away.”

Asked if he was concerned as the Skolars came back to within two points and threatened a shock, Ford said: “I’ve coached this club for four years and in that time we’ve lost a number of close games. But this team hasn’t lost many this year.

“We’ve not played at an outstanding level every week but we’ve shown outstanding levels of guts and grit.

“I was confident but I was also aware London have ability and that we needed some experience, guts and grit to get through those last few minutes.”