NEW skipper Jack Aldous has a simple philosophy when it comes to York City Knights' trophy aspirations – win every game.

Aldous, known as 'Mr Duracell' for his ability to do long stints in the front row, is under no illusions about how tough the 2016 Kingstone Press League One season will be.

Perhaps tougher even than last year, when the Knights finished fourth in the table and lost in extra time of a heartbreaking play-off semi-final at Swinton.

Furthermore, his team have again had little luck in pre-season with three warm-up matches called off – two because of wintry weather and the other, a hastily-arranged replacement fixture at North Wales, because of "the unavailability of a rugby league-affiliated safety officer to be present".

The disruption has been considerably less than last year, though, when the club were rendered homeless by the community stadium saga and had no training base.

Aldous insists that with more experience in this year's squad, and the off-field strife now over, they can target success in every League One competition.

"We want to win everything – the iPro Sport Cup, the League Leaders' Shield and promotion – and win every game we go into," said the 24-year-old, whose team kick off their season with an iPro Sport Cup first-round clash at arch-rivals Hunslet Hawks on Sunday, February 21.

"I think we've got the squad to do it. Last year, in that semi-final, we got so close – but one thing that maybe we could have done with was a bit more experience.

"Now we've added that experience with the likes of Austin Buchanan, Mike Emmett and Brett Waller, so I don't see any reason why we can't go all the way this year."

Aldous, a two-time Press Player of the Year and former Players' Player of the Year, passed a century of appearances for the Knights last term in his fourth full season with the club.

The first two of those campaigns were in the Championship and the Hull-born player, who was promoted to captain this off-season with James Haynes sidelined long-term after a knee reconstruction, is keen to return to domestic rugby league's second tier.

As for rivals for promotion, he said: "Keighley have recruited well and they will always be tough. Also, two good teams have come down and we will be battling with Hunslet again and Doncaster as well.

"I think this division will be strong like last year, if not stronger with Toulouse in there as well. They're always big and strong and teams don't always travel well when they go over there.

"But we will look at ourselves and I think at the back end of the season we will be there."