YORK City Knights boss James Ford insists his team will go into Saturday's iPro Sport Cup final as big underdogs - despite their victory over opponents Keighley two months ago.

The Knights knocked the Cougars out of the Challenge Cup in March with a 20-12 fourth-round win at Bootham Crescent, holding on under pressure after building a 20-0 interval lead.

But Ford says that will mean little in Blackpool as the teams meet in a high noon showdown for the first piece of domestic silverware of 2016 - and he believes the big names in Paul March's Cougars team must make them favourites.

"That game counts for nothing," he said. "It was a close game. We were pretty good in the first half and they were pretty good in the second half.

"They will take confidence from that, knowing they got on top of us at our home ground.

"They have a number of eye-catching players, big names by League One standards who have played a lot of first-team rugby league at Championship level and above.

"They go into the game as favourites. But that's how we like it - we like being the team that's not fancied very much. We will turn up and give it our best shot.

"It's just about the amount of experience they've got through the team.

"They have some players of outstanding calibre who have played at a higher level for a long time.

"We, on the other hand, are still a team that's improving. We've got a lot of potential - the potential at this club excites me - but we're still moving towards our potential."

Ford, meanwhile, is not too concerned by the noon kick-off, the game being the first of the Summer Bash clashes this weekend - when a whole round of Kingstone Press Championship fixtures take place in one stadium, Blackpool's Bloomfield Road.

All those Championship games are televised - but the iPro final is not.

Said Ford: "It's unusual to kick off that early.

"But my support staff have given the players as much guidance as they can in terms of how the early start will affect their preparation, both the night before and on the day.

"I've got a lot of trust in my support staff and I'm sure the players have taken it on board and will prepare just as well as for any other game."