YORK City Knights boss James Ford has called for strong refereeing tomorrow as his side kick off their League One campaign against odds-on title favourites Bradford Bulls.

Ford is wary of "big club bias" and, believing all the pressure at Bootham Crescent is on the fallen West Yorkshire giants, he is keen not to see soft calls ease any stress on John Kear's men.

The man in the middle is London-based Australian Matt Rossleigh.

"We just want a team of officials that are strong enough to look past the reputations of the Bradford Bulls name and of John Kear," explained Ford.

"We don't want to have any big club bias. You see it in all sports - to some extent it's human nature. I just hope we get a good referee who can deal with that."

The former world champions kick off life in the third tier as overwhelming favourites to bounce back to the Championship as they look to rebuild under former England coach Kear. They are odds-on to beat the Knights tomorrow, too.

"To be fair the pressure is all on Bradford," reasoned Ford.

"They've had a tough period, none of which is the fault of the current players or coaching staff.

"But they do carry that Bradford Bulls tag and that comes with an enormous amount of pressure. They're a big club, John Kear is a very good coach and they have some very good players.

"People are talking about them steamrollering the league, and that's a weighty tag to carry.

"It will be a pretty big crowd and people will be expecting them to perform. They will be under the microscope, that's for sure.

"We're massive underdogs, but we're looking forward to it. We're just going to turn up and focus on our standards."

Ford watched Bradford's heated win over League one rivals Keighley last weekend.

Bradford pair Ethan Ryan and Elliot Minchella, along with Keighley duo Samir Tahraoui and Ryan Wright, were all sent off but have escaped a suspension, as has Bulls youngster Josh Rickett, who also went up before the disciplinary.

"I thought Bradford showed why they're favourites for the competition," said Ford, when asked of the Bulls' display.

"There were some really good performances and they will have taken confidence for it, having beaten a good team in Keighley."

Asked if the flurry of red cards was deserved, he added: "It's hard to say really. You're so far away at Odsal you couldn't really see and Bradford haven't been putting videos of their games out to other clubs. But I didn't see anything that I would have sent anybody off for."

Asked if he was disappointed the Bulls will have nobody banned this weekend, he stressed: "No, not at all. We want to face the best version of Bradford that's possible.

"We're playing former world champions coached by John Kear. We want to test ourselves against the best."