KEIGHLEY coach Craig Lingard has fanned the flames ahead of tomorrow's grudge rematch against York after taking a tongue-in-cheek swipe at his City Knights counterpart - and downplaying their stunning win over Toronto too.

The last meeting between the sides, a feisty 25-18 York win in June, saw former Knight Josh Tonks sent off and several Keighley players cited for foul play by Knights boss James Ford.

Tonks is still sitting out a five-match ban and team-mates James Feather and Hamish Barnes were also slapped with suspensions. Lingard, having moaned about Ford "telling tales" on his players, has not forgotten.

In return, Ford, having slated Keighley's ill-discipline, admitted Lingard's comments after the last meeting "got under his skin" but said he was aware of the pressure of being in the Cougars hot seat - and that he hoped Lingard would be given more time in the job if his side didn't reach this year's play-offs.

“I’ve got no grudges over at York," Lingard said. "I’ll just make sure my calendar is clear for the following Tuesday for the disciplinary because no doubt certain people will be up for review."

He added: “Our players have got a point to prove, certainly after how they reviewed the game and put eight of our players in for disciplinary.

“Our players ideally would love to get one over on York but we’ve got to take that emotion out of the game and play with a bit of common sense.

“We want to play with passion but we’ve got to keep it within the laws of the game and within what we want to do in terms of keeping to our game plan and structures.”

Lingard almost dismissed York's remarkable 26-16 win last week as a shock, saying: “I said I’d have liked to have played Toronto first up.

“They’ve been playing teams over in Toronto, and they maybe haven’t taken their full strength teams over there, so you might have caught them under-cooked.

“Whether Toronto have been under-cooked or whether York have been absolutely brilliant, or a little bit of both, I’d have really liked to have got Toronto first up and tried to turn them over.”

He also reckons the Cougars can burst York’s bubble after that headline-grabbing success.

His side, three points off the top five after last week's win at Doncaster, need another victory to further bolster their play-off hopes against the side sat fourth.

“Everybody can beat everybody in this top eight," he said.

“Toronto have been beaten, Doncaster have been beaten, everybody is taking points off everybody.

“We’ve just got to focus on what we’re doing ourselves and that’s getting the two points every week and then see what happens.”

Ford, when asked about Lingard's comments, said: “I’m not particularly interested in what Craig’s got to say. I’ve got enough on my hands at York trying to help the club and the team develop and grow.

“We want Keighley to fulfil its potential. They’re potentially a massive club. If rugby league is to grow as we at York want it to, we want Keighley to grow and be up there.

“I remember Cougarmania and Keighley being innovative and pushing boundaries.

“If I’m honest, Craig might have got under my skin a bit and in hindsight it shouldn’t have done.

"I’m aware there’s expectation and pressure managing a club the size of Keighley. Paul March won the League One Cup last year and finished fifth. They got beat in the play-off final the year before. Expectations are high over there and rightly so. I really hope Keighley give Craig a bit more time than they gave Paul.”