HEAD coach James Ford says a top-four spot would be just reward for York City Knights’ supporters – and show how far the club have come since last year’s crisis and the December takeover.

The top quartet in League One are given an extra home game in the Super 8s and, while the leading three are in the clear, the Knights are heading the ultra-tight three-horse race for fourth with one game to go – after strengthening their case with a 68-6 thrashing of basement boys Hemel Stags at Bootham Crescent.

Newcastle and Doncaster remained level on points with York after big 68-20 and 70-12 wins of their own over lowly Coventry and South Wales respectively.

But York’s potentially vital result, while first confirming their Super 8s spot, increased their slight advantage – Liam Harris and Dee Foggin-Johnston leading the rout with four tries each.

Their points-difference now stands at plus-148, with Newcastle’s at plus-132 and the Dons’ at plus-84.

York host seventh-placed Workington next week while Newcastle meet Hunslet and Doncaster go to lowly Gloucestershire.

Ford said: “I’m really pleased to get the two points and obviously influence our points-difference as well.

“To beat any team by 62 is a good achievement and we played pretty well to be fair.

“For 10 or 15 minutes Hemel got on top and we made a couple of errors and gave a couple of penalties away, and our play five selection wasn’t what it needed to be.

“But for the other 65 minutes we were pretty good.”

Getting into the Super 8s would have been seen as decent enough success at the turn of the year, following the crisis at the end of last season and the takeover.

Ford added: "I think top four in itself shows how far we've come since December. We were one win from four at the start of the league and now we're looking at top four.

"That that's an attainable target coming into the Super 8s is due solely to the players' attitude towards hard work and learning and sticking together.

“It would be a great achievement considering where we started. The transformation of the team has been outstanding. It shows how much they’ve improved and there’s still more in them.”

As for an extra home game in the Super 8s, Ford said: "That would be reward for the York supporters.

“They’ve had some tough times over the last few years with the off-field stuff but they stuck by us and I’m pleased they’re getting to see good wins and some excellent tries.

"They've seen some scratchy performances early in the season, some decent ones a bit later on and some excellent ones more recently.

"An extra home game would be the least they deserve. Hopefully we can get that and then a home tie in the play-offs if we can keep improving."

Ford had warned his players to focus on performance, saying the points would then come, but he admitted they had some licence to “chase the scoreboard” in the second period.

“The game was won and we probably chased the scoreboard a bit,” he said. “We knew Newcastle were putting on a good performance against Coventry and we needed to at least match what they did.

“But that doesn’t mean going mad. It means playing the game quick, staying disciplined and patient – certainly after they had a man sent off. If we kept our shape and discipline, chances would come, and in the main we did that.

“There were 10 minutes or so when we weren’t great but you have to give Hemel some praise for that.

“Hats off to them. We were in a similar situation last week at Toronto when we were outgunned and were in difficult circumstances, but they dug in and they were maybe unlucky not to get another try at least.”

On-loan centre Tuoyo Egodo departed early in the first half with a recurrence of his hamstring pull, while Liam Harris was taken off late on as a precaution after he too felt a tweak. Harris is expected to be okay for Workington.