YORK City Knights boss James Ford is not expecting anything like a cricket score when he takes his troops to Coventry Bears tomorrow.

The last time the Knights took on an expansion club, they set a new world record with a 144-0 victory, whipping boys West Wales on the receiving end.

Coventry, meanwhile, crashed 98-6 at Keighley last week - a club record victory for the Cougars.

Ford, though, reckons the Bears are considerably better than that freak result suggests, as highlighted by victory at Hemel and relatively close contests with Whitehaven and Newcastle.

He said: "I watched the Keighley game twice and I still don't understand how it ended up like it did.

"Coventry have got some good shape in possession and ask questions, they have individuals with pace and some big lumps in the middle that take some holding.

"I think it was more that Keighley were outstanding rather than Coventry being poor.

"I need to hammer that message home (to my players). I'm expecting a tough game where we'll need to be very good. Otherwise, as we've seen in the past, some of the smaller clubs can creep up on the so-called bigger clubs."

Asked if he wanted another big victory, having slipped back to second in League One behind Bradford on points-difference last week, Ford said: "I will just take a win. We don't chase big scores.

"We respect the competition and the teams in it. We will focus on processes and standards. We didn't hit standards last week and we have to make sure we hit them this week. If we do, I'll be happy."

Ford has also warned against complacency. That 144-0 rout was followed by four tries without reply in the first half-hour of last week's game at Hunslet, only for the Knights to drop off and the Parksiders to storm back, Ford's men having to hang on for a 26-24 victory.

"I would not say there's a chance of complacency," he said. "We were clearly disappointed with how we performed against Hunslet. For 50 minutes we were a mile off where we want to be at this club.

"I don't want to take anything away from them but I think, for example, we gave four or five seven-play sets away (by kicking the ball dead), which is poor.

"Our processes were off and we made some uncharacteristic decisions on the edges. We also bombed four chances early in the second half.

"We have a point to prove to get back to our standards."