AN unchanged squad is all York City Knights boss Chris Thorman wants to see when his side return to Co-operative Championship action.

The player-coach is hoping the injuries which have disrupted the Huntington Stadium squad’s season will abate for a while after the club got off to winning ways in the league with their 26-22 victory over Swinton on Sunday.

Thorman was able to field, arguably, his strongest side against the Lions – with Waine Pryce having returned from injury, former Great Britain prop Paul King in the line-up and the side boosted by quality dual-registration players Danny Nicklas, Chris Green and John Davies.

It all added up to York’s first victory and left Thorman wondering what might have been had luck treated the Knights a little differently earlier in the campaign.

“It was our strongest squad that we have put out for a very long time,” he said of his Swinton selection.

“There are always ifs, buts and maybes but if we had that squad against Keighley and Featherstone, where we led 18-0 and 14-0 respectively, they could have been different results and results could have changed earlier in the season.

“We have to play with the hands we are dealt. We had a strong squad on Sunday so we could rotate our middle players and that was great for us.

“In the half-backs, Danny Nicklas was really composed and played well for his first game with us – he has only really trained twice with us.

“Danny and I are half-backs that control a game and that takes the pressure off Jordan Tansey. He was able to do what comes naturally to him and pick his moment to come into the line. I really liked a lot of what Jordan did (on Sunday).”

The Knights don’t return to the field until a week on Friday, when they play Sheffield for the fourth time this season. Thorman hopes an unchanged squad will be the catalyst for building a winning run.

“I am not a coach or a player that looks at the win and loss column,” he explained. “If you win the small battles on the field, if you are well prepared in training, the wins will look after themselves. It would be great to go into the next few weeks with an unchanged squad, get a bit of consistency. That would be a massive positive.”