JAMES FORD has warned his York City Knights troops not to expect an easy ride on Sunday as they look to kick-start their Kingstone Press League One season.

The Knights, who opened the campaign last weekend with defeat at title hopefuls Keighley, albeit against a side with a "world-class" completion rate, travel to an Oxford outfit who followed a shock 32-6 Challenge Cup exit to amateurs Leigh Miners Rangers with Good Friday's 32-10 reverse to league newcomers Coventry Bears.

The Iffley Road expansion club also ended last season second bottom of the pile.

However, they were also the only team to turn York over on their own patch last year in a shock 24-16 victory inspired by full-back Jonny Morris, and Ford reckons their new boss, former Heworth ARLC chief Tim Rumford, along with ex-Villagers Adam Withington, Jonny Payne and one-time Knights player Danny Allan, will be especially keen to show up well against old friends in the Minster city.

"Oxford are on home turf and they're playing the champions and they'll be looking to cause an upset," said Ford.

"There's a strong connection with Tim Rumford having gone there along with a few players from Heworth, and they will be right up for this game.

"I've seen their game against Leigh Miners and they play some really good rugby league and on their day they could turn anybody over in the league.

"At the moment we're not far away from being a good team but we're not there and no-one is going to make it easy for us. We have to work hard and continue to develop and evolve into a team that will be there come the end of the season."

Ford is optimistic of having at least "two out of three" crocks back - and Colton Roche may be available too.

The club feared prop Roche, who made the Championship One Team of the Year last season, was set for a spell on the sidelines after he exited the Keighley game with a suspected broken thumb/wrist, but X-rays have shown he suffered only bad bruising.

Hooker Harry Carter, back-row Ryan Mallinder and winger Jamel Chisholm are also eyeing returns having sat at the Cougar Park clash.

"We'll see how Colton is this week and go from there," said Ford. "We'll check the reports from the physio on Harry, Ryan and Jamel, but we think two of the three will be available again."

Asked if they were missed against Keighley, Ford said: "They're good players and I'm sure they'll want to come back in and be a big lift to everyone."

Ford, meanwhile, reckoned he had further reason to be encouraged after watching back their 28-12 Good Friday defeat. His side had led 12-10 at the break but Keighley turned the screw in the second half, aided by a few contentions refereeing calls from Gareth Hewer and his touch judges.

"We probably need to give Keighley credit," he said. "I've watched the video a few times. They had a 97 per cent completion rate in the second half - that's unbelievable, it's world class.

"They played a lot of football at us and, when I watched it back, we did a lot of good things defensively - we just had to do far too much defending.

"Having looked at the decisions that went against, they could very easily have been reversed. I understand it's hard to officiate, especially when there are a couple of experienced (Keighley) players on the pitch continually offering their opinion.

"We're not blaming the officials - Gareth Hewer is a really good referee - and we need to look at ourselves and at not giving the option for penalties to be milked against us.

"There's an argument saying we should not have to do that but clearly we need to.

"We were still in the game, though, despite those decisions and that completion rate. These are promising signs - our character and structures defensively."