TEAM manager Will Leatt reckons York City Knights’ young squad are in “pretty good shape” heading towards the new campaign – but is refusing to set them targets for 2017 just yet.

The new-look Knights have lost both pre-season friendlies so far, to Championship big guns Featherstone Rovers and London Broncos, but the improvement in between times was marked.

The team, much-changed since last year, now have one more outing – at home to a Hull FC XIII a week on Monday – before competition starts with a League One Cup tie against North Wales Crusaders on February 19, and Leatt was confident they would continue on their upward trajectory.

“It’s been a pretty successful pre-season,” said Leatt, who represented the club in Leigh this week at the 2017 season launch for Super League, the Championship and League One.

“The boys – and there are a lot of new players here – have settled in really well and have bought into the way James Ford and the staff like to do things.

“Bearing in mind all the changes, we’ve made some big strides forward from when we started before Christmas.

“James has a plan of how he wants us to play and it’s been about getting every player to adapt to that.

“There are always going to be difficulties but you can see from the London Broncos game last week (a 48-22 defeat) we’re in pretty good shape and everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet.”

Local lad Leatt, who is also an assistant to head coach James Ford having first joined the boot room in 2014, travelled over the Pennines to Leigh on Thursday with scrum-half Harry Tyson-Wilson.

He is well aware off the off-field strife the Knights suffered last term, plus the player exodus, prior to the takeover in December and the new start under different ownership.

Asked about the aims of the new-look squad this year, he toed the party line, saying: “We’ve not spoken about goals or league positions.

“It’s a young squad and we’re aware of putting too much pressure on them.

“We feel it’s important we let them go and play the best they can and focus on how they perform without worrying about league positions and things like that.”