YORK City Knights head coach James Ford is delighted to be kicking off the Super 8s against former boss Gary Thornton - and is far from perturbed about a quick return to Toulouse too.

The fixture programme for the second stage of the Kingstone Press League One season has been revealed and shows that the first of York's seven games will be against Thornton's Doncaster outfit at Bootham Crescent on Sunday, July 24 (3.30pm), while the second is back in France - just a month since Ford's men last flew over the Channel to take on the full-time promotion favourites.

The last of the seven games before the play-offs will be back at Keighley Cougars - who beat the Knights 34-28 in the final game of the regular term on Sunday.

In between times come Barrow (home), Rochdale (away), Hunslet (home) and London Skolars (home).

"It's great to play Doncaster first up," said Ford, who will give his players this weekend off before their campaign restarts a week on Sunday.

"They're a relegated club, and there's a strong connection between the sides with a former York coach there (Thornton) and many players having swapped over.

"Last time we met (a 46-16 York win at the Keepmoat Stadium in March) it was a great game with skill and intensity. It was a really pleasing encounter from our point of view. Doncaster will want to turn the tables and we'll need to be at our best to win again."

As for the early return to Toulouse, who beat the Knights 44-6 in a bruiser nine days ago, Ford said: "It's great.

"We didn't do ourselves justice there last time with the defensive errors we made in the second half.

"Toulouse players still said the game against us was the most physically demanding game they've had this season, and they beat (Championship leaders) Leigh in the Challenge Cup.

"We're very capable of raising our levels - we want to do ourselves justice next time."

The Super 8s are new to League One this year.

The regular rounds of fixtures saw the 15 teams play each other either home or away, with the top eight now going into the Super 8s and the bottom seven vying for a new shield trophy.

Points from the regular season are carried over into the Super 8s, at the end of which the top five go into the play-offs. The top two play a promotion final, the winners of which go straight up to the Championship while the losers go into semi-finals vying for a second promotion place.

Said Ford: "We've given ourselves a good opportunity to finish as high as possible in the Super 8s by being in the top four and getting an extra home game - it was a good achievement considering how the fixtures fell in the first stage of the season."

Asked if final placings could boil down to the concluding trip to Cougar Park, Ford added: "Maybe they will. With the Super 8s, the league want every game to matter and I'm sure they will.

"Going to Keighley in the last game - the mini-series between us is 2-1 to them but I've made enough noise about feeling upset on both occasions we lost. We need to focus on us now and how we apply ourselves.

"We'll take each game as it comes throughout the Super 8s but, yes, we'll look forward to getting into them again."

Asked if this blank weekend has come at a good time following his side's consecutive defeats - two of only three losses in the league - Ford said: "It won't be a week off - we'll be training as normal - but I will give them the weekend off.

"It probably is a good time for it. We've been at it a fair amount of time, producing some really good performances all season.

"A little bit of downtime can freshen us up before we go again."

York City Knights Super 8s Fixtures

Sunday, July 24: home Doncaster (3.30pm)

Saturday, July 30: away to Toulouse (6.30pm)

Sunday, August 7: home to Barrow (3pm)

Sunday, August 14: away to Rochdale (3pm)

Sunday, August 21: home to Hunslet (3pm)

Sunday, September 4: home to London Skolars (3pm)

Sunday, September 11: away to Keighley (3pm)