SKIPPER Pat Smith has shrugged off concerns that York City Knights are flat-track bullies who struggle against the stronger teams.

So far this season, the Knights have hammered some of League One’s minnows but have come a cropper against teams tipped to be in the promotion shake-up – namely Keighley, Swinton and, on Friday, Newcastle Thunder.

Now lying eighth in the table, the lowest of all the traditional heartland clubs, they face another tough team this Sunday in new league leaders Rochdale, when defeat would leave them further off the pace in the race for a top-five finish.

However, Smith is not overly concerned just yet and – despite the off-field strife that has led to growing calls for supremo John Guildford to step aside – he remains confident the Knights can kick on and "hit top speed at the business end of term".

“There’s no need to have any crisis meeting or anything like that,” he said when asked if the team’s sequence of results was a concern.

“We’ve played some good football and some bad football. In the games we haven’t played well, we’ve come unstuck, but they’ve been against good teams. It’s nothing to get overly worried about at this stage.

“We were winning these games last year but at the business end of the season we capitulated a bit and lost in the play-offs to two teams – Hunslet and Oldham – that we’d beaten comfortably in the league.

“Turn it the other way round this season – a bit more of a diesel engine approach, chug your way up and hit top speed later on – that’s what we’re aiming for.”

Referring to the community stadium saga that has left the club homeless – with the venue for Sunday's match yet to be confirmed – he added: “Given the stuff off the field, I think we’ve got to give ourselves some credit for the way we’ve been playing.

“Losing to good teams like Keighley, Swinton and Newcastle away from home is not a massive concern at the moment provided we learn from it and continue to build.”

Smith was a Championship One Player of the Year contender last season as the Knights topped the table prior to their slump in the play-offs.

The league this year is much tougher with five teams having come down and with Newcastle now having extra clout.

Smith, York’s club captain who has taken the armband from crocked team skipper James Haynes, said: “There are a lot of good teams in this division, and we’re one of them.

“We and maybe Swinton probably play the most exciting, expansive rugby, but I don’t think any one team is stamping their authority on the division and saying, ‘We’re going to take this league by the scruff of the neck’.

“Keighley and Oldham may have done a bit of that, Swinton maybe at times. But Swinton have lost a few games they maybe should have won.

“Teams like Newcastle haven’t been overly consistent yet. I don’t think anyone is doing enough to tell everyone they’re definitely going up.

“I’m confident we will be up there come the end of the year, once we can get consistency.

“You’ve just got to get into the play-offs, get into the tournament. Once you’re there, anything can happen.

“The team spirit we’ve got and the experience of last year makes me confident we can get into that tournament and give it a good shot.”

On Friday night’s defeat, the 25-year-old said: “We’ve been playing well and were starting to hit our straps but sometimes rugby league comes down to the fundamentals of running hardest and tackling hardest.

“There’s no question about our ability to play football. Sometimes, though, you can’t rely on that and you have to roll up your sleeves, run harder and tackle harder. Newcastle did that better than us.

“We didn’t make it easy for ourselves either. You can’t go making errors consistently in the first three tackles at any levels, no matter who you play. I kicked out on the full early on, which is no way to start a game.

“When you have a lack of respect for the ball, and you compound that with not running as hard as you should, you’re going to struggle and that’s why we lost.”