Ford hails players' "massive achievement" as crisis club York City Knights book play-off place

The Knights' 30-4 victory over London Skolars at Bootham Crescent, coupled with Hunslet's defeat to leaders Toulouse on Saturday, assured Ford's men of a top-five finish with one week to go.

The victory, though, was marred by knee and calf injuries respectively to Austin Buchanan and Mark Applegarth, which put in doubt the veteran pair’s availability for the play-offs, as well as the final Super 8s matches against Doncaster on Thursday and at Keighley on Sunday.

"I'm really proud of the boys," said Ford of banking a play-off place just over a month since they were told the club was closing, before assurances came they would see out the season at least.

"I'm proud they stuck together when things were getting tough for us.

"We would be naive to think things that have gone on haven't affected some people but the majority have stayed focused on the task and have trained to a great level and the spirit is high.

"It's a massive achievement. We made the iPro Cup final and we've made the play-offs.

"If you look at the talent in the group, that's what we should be achieving, but when you look at the context and the things they've been through, not just this year but for two years, it shows an enormous amount of resilience.

"It also looks like we're building some form again at the right time."

On Buchanan and Applegarth's injuries, Ford said: "Both looked pretty serious.

"We played with 15 men for quite a long time, with (hooker) Kriss Brining playing in the back row and (centre) Tyler Craig on the wing.

"Austin's is a medial ligament injury. But he looks after himself and hopefully it will settle down and he'll be able to play this week.

"Mark is another great pro. We'll see how the injury responds to treatment. Hopefully he will be available for us for at least one more game this week."

The result saw York bounce back from defeat to Hunslet and go back up to fourth, with Doncaster losing to Rochdale.

Said Ford: "London have got some powerful players, a lot of players who've played at a good level. Jermain Coleman (Skolars boss) will be disappointed the game got away from them.

"When teams make the game as slow as that against us it takes away some of our game, such as Harry Carter and Kriss Brining working off the front foot.

"We can get frustrated and come away from what we do but we adapted and managed it pretty well. We showed maturity to stick to our processes and we won the game comfortably."

Ford was not too critical of referee Greg Dolan for allowing a stop-start encounter, although he was "frustrated with the tempo of the game".

He said: "Me and Jermaine shared a joke (going off at half-time). There was one set where we came up the field and the rucks were eight to ten seconds long. We then kicked to the corner and he gave a penalty for us holding down when it was a five-second play-the-ball.

"But it's hard refereeing and we've had far worse than that bloke."

He added: "I thought we were pretty good. We made a number of chances.

"I'm pretty happy. There was a bit more bite about us, especially on the right-hand side with Ed Smith and Brandon Westerman."

That pair had switched back-row and centre roles, with the latter having chosen to play after Ford left the decision with the player himself, following the death of his granddad in the week.

"I thought Brandon was excellent," said the coach of the Castleford loanee.

"I was happy to go with his decision either way but he was willing to play and he wanted to put in a good performance.

"I think he did his family proud, and it was great he got those tries. He got two and was really unlucky to have a third ruled out."

He added: "He was maybe off the pace, him and Ed Smith, against Hunslet but today he was superb.

"His contacts had bite about them, he worked hard, ran intelligent lines, and showed awareness to get to loose balls. There are certainly positive things to come from him in the future.

"Switching them worked. Both of them were excellent."