YORK City Knights players have imposed their own alcohol ban in the run-up to Sunday’s showdown at Keighley.

The Knights travel to Cougar Park for their Championship One qualifying semi-final, where victory would thrust them straight to the grand final.

Before then is the annual presentation night, a plush five-course meal and ceremony, plus welcome drinks, to be held tonight at York Racecourse.

However, the players have agreed among themselves to steer clear of the booze and make sure minds and bodies remained focused on the job – giving themselves a better chance of having more to celebrate come the end of the season.

Head coach James Ratcliffe said: “They’ve enforced their own drinks ban. They said straight away during a team meeting that they won’t be drinking. It came from the players and was unanimous.”

The timing of tonight’s event has been questioned, but it has been held on the same weekend for the past five years.

General manager Ian Wilson explained: “If you wait until after the grand final but don’t get there, the presentation night could be five weeks after your season ends, which isn’t ideal. A lot of players also go on holiday when the campaign finishes.

“Last year we got knocked out in the first round, so people could let their hair down. This year we’ve got an important play-off on Sunday – but that’s a good thing.

“People will still enjoy themselves and it’s always a good night.”

Meanwhile, Ratcliffe was still considering his options for replacing David March at loose-forward.

Former Featherstone star Richard Blakeway played at 13 in the notable win over Oldham, though Lee Waterman starred ion that role is his amateur days while Loz Wildbore is another option.

Ratcliffe was still frustrated by the Rugby Football League for handing down a two-match ban to March, which could feasibly end the star turn’s season.

“He’s been harshly treated,” said Ratcliffe, who attended both disciplinary hearing and tried in vain to prove March was innocent of making a dangerous throw in the game against Swinton.

“We thought we had taken a very good case to the RFL. Dave did have hold of Carl Sneyd’s leg but he let got before it was ‘above the horizontal’ and it was the actions of the other player in the tackle (Wildbore) that accidentally sent him over. We gave evidence by video and by giving an example.

“It’s already been in The Press that it beggars belief that a guy could pick up a 15st 7lb kid with one hand. But that’s their finding.”

Play-off opponents Keighley have also been recently hit by disciplinary woe having been told that coach Barry Eaton will not be allowed to make a playing comeback as his touchline ban, for abusing an official, also prevents him donning a shirt.

Veteran schemer Eaton had hoped to offer an alternative at hooker in the wake of injury to James Feather, but he remains banned until the end of the season having had an appeal rejected.

Loose-forward Carl Hughes, the brother of Knights hooker Paul Hughes and himself a former York player, could be moved to dummy-half, rotating that role with another ex-Knight, Jamaine Wray, in Sunday’s Cougar Park contest.

Eaton’s blow is not nearly as big as York’s, given he has not played for 12 months, but Ratcliffe reckoned all clubs in the Championships faced a harder disciplinary deal than their Super League counterparts.

He cited the recent examples of Leeds duo Keith Senior and Jamie Jones Buchanan, who were each given only one-match bans for punching and placing undue pressure on a shoulder, respectively, in their game with St Helens. Those bans were used up in an end-of-season run-out against Salford.

“There’s no clarity or consistency in the sentencing,” said Ratcliffe.

“It’s possibly ended David’s season and they’re the two most important games of our season.

“There have been 46 players from Super League in front of that judiciary and only two have been banned.

“They don’t want the big clubs coming down on them, but the Championship clubs get hit.”