YORK City Knights boss James Ford joked his side might become a pub quiz question in years to come after they stormed back into the Kingstone Press League One play-off zone with a 13-try romp at Hemel Stags.

Hooker Kriss Brining, in his first game back after a two-month injury lay-off, scored a hat-trick as Ford's men hammered their hosts 70-10 to go fourth in the table with a game in hand on two teams above them.

Next up are one of the teams they leapfrogged, Swinton Lions, at home – although a venue for the game is yet to be confirmed as the community stadium saga, which has rendered them homeless all year, rumbles on.

"It might make an interesting quiz question," said Ford when asked if he knew where that game would be played.

"Who's the only team to win the league and not play an actual home game?"

Home fixtures have so far taken place at York RUFC, Featherstone Rovers and Heworth, in addition to pre-season friendlies held at Doncaster and Pontefract RUFC.

Ford said: "We're aware that times are difficult at the club. That serves to pull us together as a group.

"It would be easy for us to say, 'Look at all the stuff we're having to deal with,' and write this season off.

"But it's just the opposite. With the attitude this group of players has got, it's making them more determined to succeed."

The build-up to the trip to Hemel was marred by news that the Knights' reserves had been expelled from the Reserve Championship due to failure to fulfil fixtures as a direct and indirect result of homelessness. The majority of the reserves squad were released.

Ford said: "I was the person who gave them the news and I was upset. The (first-team) boys are upset. They had grown together and trained together and they'd played matches against one another. We saw it as one club, rather than two individual groups.

"York has a good history of bringing players through – look at the line-up here with five players who have come through the pathway.

"It's something we need to look at and work out how to make sure that continues."

All five of those players – Ed Smith, Greg Minikin, Ben Dent, Brining and Harry Carter – were on the scoresheet at Pennine Way.

Brining, 21, took his try tally for the season to 12 in eight outings after starting the game at hooker, crossing twice in the opening quarter and completing his treble on the final hooter.

Ford said: "Kriss is a good player, as we know. That's 12 tries for him now – he's our top try-scorer and he's missed nearly half our games with injury.

"He's a fantastic athlete, a real handful, and as he matures he will become an even better player. He's one with a bright future in the game, for sure.

"I'm pleased with the 70 points. Defensively we were good throughout the 80 minutes.

"I was not too happy with our first-half performance with the ball – we were sloppy and did not get momentum, and the quality of pass was off.

"In the second half I thought the boys were right on it and they deserve praise for what they did.

"To score 70 points here is pretty tough, with a narrow field, and Hemel can be hard to beat at home, so I was pleased.

"It's two points. We're not going to get carried away. We've got plenty of games until the end of the season and we will look for areas to improve – there were plenty of them in the first half and a couple in the second.

"We will aim to be better than that against Swinton – and we will need to be because Swinton are a very good team.

"There are seven or eight teams who are all pretty equal but if we continue to build and mature, I am sure we will be there or thereabouts come the end of the season."