GARY THORNTON has admitted he tried his best to keep Mike Emmett at Doncaster before the 28-year-old quit the club for York City Knights.

However, the Keepmoat Stadium boss intimated that while he also offered contracts to the three others who made the off-season switch from South to North Yorkshire – Rich Wilkinson, Brett Waller and Russ Spiers – he didn't fight too hard for their services.

The quartet’s move, plus the fact Thornton was head coach at York only two years ago, means the two clubs are set to start the Kingstone Press League One season as new arch-rivals.

Thornton also lured Knights favourite Jordan Howden to the Keepmoat – adding to ex-Yorkies Tom Carr and Matt Nicholson – amid a huge turnaround in staff.

Said the Donny chief: “We’ve had a fair old turnover of players. We got rid of a fair few and kept only seven from last year.

“When I went there (last season), they’d played 18 and lost 18. It wasn’t a good environment. I tried to keep them up but it wasn’t to be. We’re now rebuilding.

“I looked at what we had and what I wanted to keep. We handpicked those we thought would be good enough and the rest we didn’t offer contracts to.

“Some players wanted to stay in the Championship and we probably lost a couple I would’ve liked to have kept. Mike Emmett was one of them, but he decided he wanted a new challenge.

“I wanted a squad that played my way and had the ethos I’ve got to work hard.”

On Wilkinson, Waller and Spiers, Thornton said: “I looked at Richard Wilkinson and offered him a deal. He told me he’d had a better offer and we didn’t take it any further. He’d spoken to York and I was happy for him to go.

“I knew I had Jordie Hedges the Aussie signed up, and he’s been fantastic, and we were a way towards signing Jordan Howden. We also had the promise of season-long loans from (partner club) Hull so I knew I had cover at half-back and I didn’t want to stand in Richard’s way if he was looking for first-team football.

“Brett struggled with injuries last year and I thought at one point he might pack in.

“I don’t think we offered him the contract he was looking for and he got a deal at York.

“I wanted to keep Russ Spiers and offered him a contract but he got a better offer at York and decided that’s where he wanted to be. We left it at that.

“They’ve all gone with my best wishes.”

Thornton, replaced as Knights boss by James Ford 16 months ago despite leading the side to the League One title, was speaking at the official launch of the 2016 Championship and League One season, held in Worsley, outside Manchester, yesterday.

He reckoned both his current club, relegated from the Championship, and former club would be up there in the League One promotion race.

However, he reckoned it would be a tougher division to get out of than in 2014 when his York contract was not renewed following failure in the play-offs.

He said: “Toulouse will be very tough. There’s York, Barrow have signed really well, Hunslet look like they’ve signed well. It will be tough to get into the top eight. There are a fair calibre of traditional rugby league clubs in there.

“This division is getting more competitive the longer it goes on.

“It is certainly much tougher than when I was at York. Last time there was only York, Hunslet and Oldham and the rest were development teams.

“Now there’s ourselves, Keighley, Rochdale, Barrow, York, Hunslet – all good traditional clubs with pedigree – plus North Wales, who are strong, Newcastle and now Toulouse.

“First and foremost you need to get in the play-offs. We will hopefully be as competitive as we can be, get into the play-offs and see how we go in there.”