HEAD coach James Ford says he is keen to keep the bulk of the squad that took York City Knights to within 12 seconds of the League One play-off final - but has confirmed there will be "one or two" departures.

The Knights agonisingly fell 18-17 after extra time at Swinton Lions in Sunday's semi-final, the hosts having levelled the scores just before the final hooter with a dramatic drop goal.

It will almost certainly be Greg Minikin's last game for the club before his long-mooted switch to Super League side Castleford - the centre signed off with his 18th try of the season - while The Press also believes Championship big guns Featherstone Rovers are poised to snaffle Colton Roche, offering the prop a sizeable pay rise that York cannot match in the third tier.

Jamel Chisholm, who only made three appearances, has signed for Oldham and Liam Cunningham, whose form tailed off, is likely to leave too.

Ford would not confirm which players were on their way but said: "There are one or two blokes leaving us and from myself and everyone at the club I want to wish them all the best.

"I hope they go on to become the players they're capable of becoming."

Ford nevertheless hailed his squad's efforts over the year - the fourth-placed finish came in the face of off-field issues, homelessness and disputes caused by the community stadium saga - and said he would seek to keep "everyone we can keep".

The Press understands the club are also close to bringing in new recruits.

"I've been at this club for five years and this is the best York team I've seen in many years," he said, insisting the players, rather than himself, deserved the credit. "They've played the most attractive rugby league.

"Bear in mind when I came to this club we had players like Anthony Thackeray and Chris Thorman in the halves. What my boys have achieved as a team is outstanding and what they've done together is outstanding.

"I wish I had played in a team with this amount of togetherness.

"Everyone we can keep we will be trying to keep, for sure."

Meanwhile, Ford took to social media yesterday calling for fans to "pull together" to bolster a promotion push next season.

A side effect of the troubled community stadium saga earlier in the year was a public falling-out between members of the Knights Independent Supporters Society (KISS) and Knights' major shareholder John Guildford. KISS blamed Guildford for the team's homelessness, having not signed up to City of York Council's controversial stadium deal, and called for him to step aside, paving the way for York City's owners, JM Packaging, to take over.

Since then, a new board, with Guildford omitted from talks, has signed a stadium agreement which will finally - if later than proposed - get the club playing at City's Bootham Crescent ground next season as part of the project before both teams move into the planned new arena. JM Packaging also withdrew from takeover talks.

Ford write on the KISS website page: "Thanks for your support this year, let's pull together and move this club forward next year."