HEAD coach James Ford hailed the return of James Haynes at full-back as the club captain’s “wonderful” try helped York City Knights return to winning ways at a vital time of the season.

York ended a four-game losing streak with a 36-16 victory at second-placed Rochdale to go back to fourth in League One in the Super 8s race for the top-five play-offs.

Ford admitted it wasn’t vintage Knights in an at times scrappy affair, and that they will need to perform better all-round to ultimately win promotion, but he lauded the resilience in his players - not least that of Haynes in his first start since his knee reconstruction, the latest in a long line of injury troubles.

“There were some excellent individual performances and James Haynes' was one of those,” he said of the 27-year-old, who scored one and set up one in a six-try show.

“He came up with a great one-on-one tackle when one of their middles had broken through, and he showed glimpses of his old form.

“It was great he capped his performance with a wonderful try.”

On the game as a whole, which also brought a debut for Castleford loanee Brandon Westerman and a welcome return for Micky Learmonth after his pre-season horror injury, Ford said: “We got the right outcome – we got the win and ended a losing run we didn’t want to be associated with.

“I saw characteristics I’ve seen all year – a bunch of blokes who work set after set for each other, a bunch who would not be beaten and defended their goal-line with resilience. There were some good patches of possession.

“We made it hard for ourselves, though, conceding too many penalties and making too many errors coming out of yardage, putting pressure on ourselves. It’s a good job we’re so resilient.

“Rochdale are a good team and if you give teams in the Super 8s that amount of opportunity they’re going to crack you.

“I thought we were on top from the start but momentum changed on the back of errors and it can take you five or ten minutes to get back to where you were. As we grow again and get back into our rhythm we will get better.”

Defeats to Toulouse, twice, Keighley and Barrow had dented the Knights’ top-five hopes, all coinciding with off-field strife in which chairman John Guildford said the club was to close down, claiming ground issues amid the community stadium saga made it unviable. Takeover talks saved the season but Ford’s men still have to play catch-up in the league, with the home game against Doncaster having been called off amid the trouble.

“I’ve spoken enough about the fixture list being against us, a couple of decisions from referees, and what’s happened at the club in the last few weeks,” said Ford.

“But it’s time to focus now on us. The team wanted to reward the supporters for sticking by us with a good performance. It’s now time to build momentum towards the play-offs.

“The York supporters have been fantastic for me ever since I took over. It must have been pretty difficult for them after what’s happened with the off-field stuff, but they’ve stood by me and the team and they helped us find extra energy to defend our goal-line. That victory is down to them as well.”

The result made it three wins out of three over the Hornets this season, two at Spotland.

Added Ford: “I feel a bit for Rochdale. We’ve come here and performed twice now. I’ve got a lot of respect for their players and they have a really good up-and-coming coach in Alan Kilshaw.

“They will get a response next week I’m sure and get back to performing how they can.”