No home comforts? We’ll simply carry on

For players, it can affect form, especially in Championship One where away trips are longer and more laborious than in the M62-dominated Championship.

For fans, barring the hardy diehards who travel long and far, it can mean a while without watching a game or enjoying the fare.

For chairman and treasurers, it's too long without any income through the gates - especially when your team, like in York City Knights' case, are generally earning winning pay too.

For Knights boss Gary Thornton, though, it is a case of simply carrying on.

York's game tomorrow at London Skolars was originally down as a home match but was reversed at the start of the season to avoid clashing with the Tour de France festivities in Yorkshire. It means it becomes the third of four consecutive away trips, all of them of considerable distance.

And, while Thornton is very much aware of the stresses and strains that entails, he is focusing one game at a time, one win at a time - and hoping that brings a party atmosphere when his side finally return to home soil.

“It is a problem for the club, without those income streams for a month," he said. "It’s something the chairman has had to factor in.

“But we are hoping we do well in these next two away games and come the Oldham fixture we’re top of the league and people will come and watch.

“They won’t have seen rugby there for five weeks so hopefully we can get a bumper crowd.

“It could be the top two in the division if we both carry on winning and that would make it an even more fantastic fixture.

“We can only do what we can do. These are the cards we’ve been dealt. I’m hoping that’s the situation when the club gets back to Huntington Stadium – that we’ll be first and Oldham second and the club can benefit from a big crowd, and hopefully another win.”

Pessimists could argue that, bereft of their fortnightly visit to Huntington Stadium, some fans find “other things to do on a Sunday” and don’t come back.

“Quite a few have been doing that anyway,” quipped Thornton, attendances having been on a downward trend for some years, and falling markedly this year after relegation to a tier with generally little travelling support.

“Crowds haven’t been great. But there is a good set of support here in York. The diehards and York fans, and generally people that like to watch rugby league, will look at that fixture and think it will be a really good game, and that will make their decision to come and see us.

“If we win that, they’ll want to follow us in a last few home games and get right behind us in the play-offs.”

IF York do go up through those play-offs, they’ll have something new to look forward to in the league next year – the Championship’s very own ‘Magic Weekend’.

The Rugby Football League announced this week that all seven fixtures on one weekend of the Championship season will take place at Bloomfield Road, the home of Blackpool Football Club.

It mimics the successful Magic Weekend in Super League, which has been running now for eight years.

Thornton reckoned it was a good idea to do it at the next tier down, especially as, from 2015, promotion returns to Super League via the new-look pathway.

“It’s great,” he said. “The more exposure we get in the Championships the better.

“It shows the Rugby Football League are showing an interest in the competition.”

Blackpool has previously hosted weekend 9s tournaments for Championships teams and Bloomfield Road has staged finals of the old Northern Rail Cup.

Thornton added of the location: “It’s a place that people can go and spend a weekend, so fair enough. It’s a good stadium and they (the RFL) have had success there when they took the Northern Rail Cup to that ground.”

IF the Knights don't go up, they'll have another new opponent in Championship One next season.

In addition to the four clubs that are relegated from the Championship as part of the league restructure, Coventry Bears will enter the semi-professional ranks for the first time, the lastest in a list of expansion clubs to do so.

The Bears, who formed in 1998 and who currently play in National Conference League division three, alongside Heworth ARLC, have long been touted as a potential semi-pro outfit, having first been expected to join in 2012 alongside the likes of Gloucestershire All Golds, Hemel and Oxford. They will play home games at the curiously-named 4,000-capacity Butts Park Arena.

RFL chief operating officer Ralph Rimmer said: “The arrival of Coventry Bears adds another refreshing dimension to the Championships at a time when the sport is approaching an exciting new era with the introduction of a new league structure in 2015.

“Following on from the success of Oxford, Hemel Stags and the University and Gloucestershire All Golds in introducing Rugby League to a new audience of players and spectators, Coventry will enhance the competition and the sport."

The word "success" is somewhat arguable, of course. While the three clubs mentioned have greatly improved on the field, with the RFL obviously considering only their results, off the field still leaves lots of room for improvement - not least with attendances.

Not only must operations become more professional but work must be done to market and sell the game to locals, as only time will tell how long these clubs will be able to exist on gates of less than 300, or how long traditional clubs can put up with no travelling support boosting not only gates but also match-day atmospheres.

June gong to Lee-ding light Jack

JACK LEE has surged ahead in The Press Player of the Year standings – thanks in part to his Player of the Month accolade for June.

The Knights’ captain marvel has come top of the poll of The Press readers after his form in the wins over Gateshead, South Wales Scorpions and Hemel, following the disappointment in Gloucestershire.

And the three bonus player of the year points that brings, coupled with the other two points he’s picked up in the last few weeks, see him go clear on the leaderboard.

Perhaps central to his success is his scoring rate, which now stands at 14 in 11 games, his two touchdowns against Hemel lifting him back above Ben Dent in the club’s try charts.

“I thought he was terrific again last Sunday,” said boss Gary Thornton, noting the 25-year-old returned to the fray after a spell on the bench despite picking up knee ligament damage.

“Whether he should have gone back on or not, I don’t know. He’s tough, though.

“He’s been terrific all year. He’s a class act.

“I’ve said before he’s the best hooker in this division. He’s one of the best throughout the Championships.

“His game awareness, the way he organises the team, what he does around the ruck – it’s all very good. He sniffs out opportunities and comes up with his fair share of tries as well.”

Thornton reckons the excellent form of half-backs Pat Smith and Ben Reynolds – contenders in the Player of the Month poll – is also partly due to Lee.

“Teams are aware of what Jack does around the ruck area so they’re wary of him and have to tighten up around there and that creates spaces for the pivots.

“People like Pat and Ben and James Haynes (at full-back) have been exploiting those spaces. They’ve been playing well and a lot of that comes on the back of what Jack does.”

The three player of the year points winners in last week’s match at Hemel were man of the match Joe Pickets (3), Lee (2) and Ed Smith (1). The three in the previous week’s victory in South Wales were Ben Reynolds (3), hat-trick man Ben Dent (2)and Pat Smith (1). Against Gateshead, they were props Iain Morrison (3), Jack Aldous (2) and Brad Brennan (1).

The Press Player of the Year standings: Lee 18pts, Aldous 12, P Smith 11, Reynolds 11, Haynes 9, Saltonstall 7, Paterson 5, Brennan 4, E Smith 4, Presley 4, Morrison 4, B Dent 3, Pickets 3, Bell 3, B Hardcastle 2, Minikin 1, Mallinder 1.