JAMES FORD is hoping for a bumper turnout when York City Knights finally make their bow back in the city centre at Bootham Crescent - saying his boys deserve it.

The Knights face Super League side Hull FC in a prestigious New Year friendly on Sunday, January 3, at the home of York City, the ground they will now be sharing with the football club until the new community stadium is built.

They were supposed to play there last year as part of the scheme to rebuild their old Huntington Stadium base into an 8,000-seater home for both clubs, but club major shareholder John Guildford was ostracised from talks by project leaders after a major fall-out, leaving the team homeless and scrambling around for both training and playing facilities.

A year later, and back in the scheme thanks to the intervention of new directors, they will finally play on the Crescent turf, and Ford said: "A lot of supporters I've spoken to have always strongly intimated that when we move back to the city centre there will be an increase in support with a feel-good factor around the place. I'm looking forward to that.

"My boys deserve it. They play an expansive brand and have a lot of character. A lot of them are home-grown boys as well. They deserve a decent crowd to cheer them on there not just for this game but for the season there and beyond."

Ford, whose team got to within seconds of this year's League One play-off final, expected the Black and Whites to bring a sizeable following, with their head coach Lee Radford set to field a Super League strength side.

"I spoke to Lee and they're going to bring a strong team. We're looking forward to the challenge," he said.

"Hull FC are a really well-supported club, both Hull teams are. It's a rugby league city. I played against Hull a couple of times and it was a fantastic experience. I would expect them to support the game and it'll probably be the first opportunity for their fans to see their new signings and look at how Lee's going to improve things.

"I'm sure they'll be excited to see their boys just like the public of York should be excited to see our signings and how we've advanced."

He added: "It will hopefully be good for our club's finances, and good for the supporters to see how we get on against full-time athletes. It will be a useful tool for me too to see where we're at.

"I've signed players who want to improve and they're training at fantastic levels and hopefully that will be evident."

Ford was optimistic his team would fair better than in the 62-0 defeat 12 months ago in the friendly that was switched from Bootham Crescent to Doncaster's Keepmoat Stadium.

"We played against arguably their strongest 17 they could put out and, after the adversity we'd gone through with the pre-season training problems, we came a bit unstuck.

"We're looking forward to another crack at them with a better pre-season, and to the chance to grow our reputation.

"We plan to focus on the things we've worked on. We can use that as a measuring tool to see the distance we've travelled and the areas we need to taper our focus towards."

Meanwhile, Austin Buchanan, the winger who has returned to York after a decade at Dewsbury Rams, was to go for his hernia operation today, after which he faces a month of rehab before being in line for a shirt.

The 31-year-old will sit out the match against Hull and is unlikely to feature in the second pre-season fixture either, away to Featherstone January 14. The remaining friendly is against Castleford on January 22, with the season kicking off a month later.