Thor’s home guard (From York Press)

Thor’s home guard

11:50am Saturday 6th February 2010 in

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Chris Thorman has urged York City Knights to turn Huntington Stadium into a fortress – uniting on and off the field of play to do so.

Obviously they could hardly have picked a harder team to raise up the barricades against, with Championship big-guns Leigh being the first visitors to Monks Cross this season in tomorrow’s opening Northern Rail Cup encounter.

But player-coach Thorman believes good home form could be key to success as they go for promotion in Co-operative Championship One – and getting on the front foot early would be good.

“It’ll be important to win home games,” said the ex-Super League star. “You need to make your home ground something of a fortress and a place opposing sides don’t enjoying coming to.

“That will be helped by having more fans down there, making more noise – the more we get the better.”

Past records back up that assertion.

Irrespective of away form, the Knights have enjoyed their three best campaigns in their seven-season history on the back of their three best home records.

The magical 2004 season, which included long runs in the Arriva Trains (now Northern Rail) Cup and the Challenge Cup as well as the appearance in the grand final, saw Huntington Stadium thrilled by 14 wins and only two defeats.

The promotion season that followed was similarly superb for home cheer, with eight wins, one draw and only three defeats – with one of those defeats against big-guns Castleford in the Northern Rail Cup while another, against Workington, came after the title had already been secured. A run of seven straight home wins had sent them on the way to automatic promotion.

The next best season was last term, when York finished third on the back of a home record of ten wins and three defeats.

Conversely, sixth-placed finishes in 2007 and 2008 and the fourth-placed finish in 2003, all with early exits in the play-offs, followed inconsistent home runs.

The record in 2008 was six wins, three draws and seven defeats. In 2007, it was eight wins and eight losses, and in the inaugural 2003 season it was eight wins, one draw and seven defeats.

The relegation season of 2006 unsurprisingly featured the worst home record of five wins, one draw and seven defeats – not an awful return in the higher division but not good enough to make up for the away-day paucity and save the club from demotion.

TOMORROW’S game, as already reported in The Press, pitches together arguably the two biggest signings throughout the Championships.

Knights scrum-half Chris Thorman will go up against Leigh schemer Robbie Paul, the former international stars having dropped down from Super League, both having graced the top tier for many a year.

As Thorman has said, it will be great for the Huntington Stadium crowd to watch a player of Paul’s stature on their territory, as well as see outspoken former Super League coach Ian Millward, now Leigh’s boss, sat among them in the Mayfair Security Main Stand.

Few people will realise, however, that Paul has played up at Monks Cross before – and the Kiwi legend revealed to The Press it was a memorable day for him, all for the wrong reasons.

“It was 1995,” he recalled. “It was a second-team game for Bradford. We lost and I went off with a dislocated shoulder. That game put me out for over a month. I like the city a lot but that’s my one experience of playing at York. Hopefully this time will be better.”

THE Knights have passed on gratitude to the Supporters’ Club for their donation of £2,000 raised during the 2009 season. Knights general manager Ian Wilson said: “Thanks to everyone involved with the Supporters’ Club for their time and efforts and to all who attended their fundraising events.”

THERE will be ‘happy hour’ in Bar 13 at Huntington Stadium between 12.30pm and 1.30pm prior to all first-team matches this year that kick off at 3pm.

Two-course Sunday lunches are also available for £9.95 per person or £20 with a match ticket. To book, call Leanne on 01904 641724.