BOSS James Ford reckons his York City Knights team have more potential than he ever had – but has told them to learn from his own shortcomings as a player in order to fulfil it.

The Knights rose to second in Kingstone Press League One thanks to a 38-10 win on their first-ever visit to Coventry Bears while Keighley were losing their top-of-the-table clash at Oldham.

However, Ford felt his team were below-par in several areas and, while he took into account more changes to the line-up after last week's rotation against South Wales, he "could not accept" a drop in intensity.

Asked if he could understand if players take it easy in matches they are expected to win, Ford – who hung up his own boots only last year – said: "As a player, I may have been sloppy (in games like this), but as a coach, I'm not willing to accept it.

"As a group, these players have far more potential than I ever had and my job is to make sure they fulfil it, and to do that they have to hit their standards every week."

Ford, who played in Super League at his peak, added: "It is irrelevant who the opposition is. Coventry did a good job but we've got our standards and if we focus on those standards, the opposition and the officials are irrelevant."

Ford nevertheless felt the Bears were the best expansion club in League One, having now met them twice in their maiden season.

"I'm really pleased to get the win coming away from home and there were some positives in the performance," he said.

"For the majority of the game we defended really well, especially on our goal-line. But we needed to because we coughed the ball up too much and did not create tempo.

"We need to have a look at ourselves because we can be better and the game was too slow.

"That's not to take anything away from Coventry – they're a decent expansion team and hopefully they'll pick up more wins.

"They're always going to try to slow the game down and make it more even."

Asked how his players could have speeded things up, Ford added: "You need to carry the ball with some vigour.

"Micky Learmonth and Brad Nicholson came off the interchange bench and carried the ball as I would expect, giving us more tempo.

"We had a chat about that and how we needed to improve that facet – but we fell short of our high standards."

Ford was without try machine Kriss Brining after he picked up the same illness that ruled out Ben Dent, while Colton Roche was a late withdrawal after a minor shoulder injury in training.

The Knights coach still rested Greg Minikin and captain James Haynes, with Jordan Howden and Learmonth rotated back in while Adam Dent and Casey Canterbury made reappearances after several weeks on the sidelines.

Asked if a drop in cohesion was partly due to those changes, Ford said: "We've got a good squad with 25 good players.

"Some players have not played for a few weeks but we might need these players before the end of the season. Look at this week – we were missing Kriss and Ben Dent because of illness.

"The boys that came in are good players and I have confidence and belief that they will play well and progress, but I expected a bit more from the team than I got.

"As a group, we need to show more consistency and make sure we meet our standards.

"I have a lot of belief in how my players can play, and how they're going to improve, but they need to make sure they hit their standards every week with no excuses.

"We're not going to look at referees or the opposition. We need to turn up and play to the standards we've set."

Howden departed with a hip complaint and will be assessed this week. Roche is expected back for next Sunday's visit of Oxford, which is likely to be staged at Heworth ARLC with Bootham Crescent still unavailable.

Meanwhile, the Knights' home fixture against North Wales Crusaders has been rearranged for Thursday, August 20 at a venue to be confirmed.