LIAM HARRIS and Dee Foggin-Johnston scored four tries apiece to send York City Knights on their way to a fun-filled victory over basement boys Hemel Stags.

Half-back Harris began it all with a treble inside the first quarter and winger DFJ got his second hat-trick in as many weeks as the Knights won 68-6 to confirm their place in the Kingstone Press League One Super 8s with one game to go.

It was all capped off by a try for Ryan Mallinder – marking the pack favourite’s return to action after 14 months out.

Most importantly, it was also a big enough win to sustain fourth place.

Boss James Ford had warned his side to focus on performance rather than the scoreboard but he would have been well aware of the need to run up a big number in the race for top four.

Those berths are rewarded with an extra home game in the Super 8s and the last of the four appears a straight shootout between York, Newcastle and Doncaster, who are all level on points.

This victory – aided by Hemel having full-back Marcus Elliott sent off in the second half - kept the Knights at the helm, despite their rivals also winning big against whipping boys.

Ford had made four changes to the side that battled away in Toronto last week.

The most notable, as reported by The Press, were the selections of Super League veteran Graeme Horne at loose-forward on dual-reg from Hull KR, and the return of Mallinder.

Former Hull and Huddersfield packman Horne has been out since April after surgery on a broken thumb and the Championship leaders are checking him out ahead of the Middle 8s in their bid to return to the top flight.

He was a like-for-like replacement for the influential Tim Spears, who remained sidelined.

Packman Mallinder, whose career was in the balance after breaking a leg 14 months ago, signed a new deal last month after coming through rehab.

He was given his first run-out off the bench, in place of James Haynes.

Fit-again Castleford loanee Tuoyo Egodo also replaced young gun Adam Swift at centre, and fit-again Adam Robinson was a natural swap for Kieran Moran up top.

Robinson had a storming first stint to help set the platform for the win. Egodo, though, when faced with clear grass in front of him after a Hemel fumble, pulled up, his hamstring going again just 11 minutes in.

York still scored in that attack, though, Horne putting Chris Siddons in – already York’s third try of the afternoon.

Harris had got the other two – showing and going for his first and then being put through neatly by half-back partner Connor Robinson for the second.

The fourth try came on 15, Ash Robson’s long pass giving Foggin-Johnston a sprint into the corner.

The in-form DFJ created the next – and how.

A stunning run out of defence, slicing through broken defence like a downhill skier gliding past poles, had him eyeing a solo try-of-the-season contender. When his avenues were finally closed down, a basketball pass gave Harris his hat-trick on the 20-minute mark.

The Knights were enjoying themselves, only a linesman flag halting the romp when Robson’s cut-out pass to Nev Morrison on the opposite wing was harshly called forward.

Still, Morrison’s thumping tackle on Hemel half-back Lewis Fairhurst denied the visitors at the other end after a lucky ricochet had given them their first real sight of the whitewash. Brett Whitehead’s knock-on at a play-the-ball cut short that rare foray.

Back at the other end, Harris almost got a fourth, Stags full-back Elliott just winning a 45-metre footrace to the corner after Ronan Dixon has sent the scrum-half away.

But the lead did increase when Joe Batchelor, having switched from left-second-row to right-centre in Egodo’s stead, scored down the short side, sub hooker Pat Smith smartly giving him the chance.

The crowd were silenced just before half-time, though, when, after consecutive penalties laid the platform, prop Reece Williams spun over the whitewash. No clean sheet here.

The Stags were attacking on the hooter, too, and two penalties early in the second half had the visitors on the front foot again but ex-Knight Mark Barlow was held up over the whitewash and then his foul on Pat Smith allowed the hosts to clear their lines.

Instead, a run by Horne helped set the field position for the Knights’ first try of the period. A decent move right to left should have seen Brad Hey score but the centre kindly gave his winger the chance instead, Foggin-Johnston spinning his opposite number to get his second.

His hat-trick soon followed, after the Stags were reduced to 12.

Connor Robinson’s bomb caused consternation in the Hemel rearguard, with the loose ball being fed back to Ed Smith. The York skipper was upended in a horribly dangerous tackle which saw players rush in from both sides, not least Ed’s brother Pat.

It may have been accidental and Smith got up unscathed but Elliott was sent off, and York immediately made the extra man tell, Harris’ long pass seeing DFJ jink past his man.

The game got scratchy as the Stags dug in but the floodgates did open with five tries in the last 16 minutes.

Connor Robinson put Ed Smith into a gap and he gave Batchelor his second try.

Then Robinson broke through and put Harris to the posts for his fourth, the latter immediately being withdrawn, his job done.

Adam Robinson blasted through a tackle and offloaded, Hey putting on the afterburners to round stand-in full-back Scott Lee, and another Robinson offload created space for DFJ to score his fourth in the corner.

Then namesake Connor was at it again, breaking through and feeding Ed Smith, whose inside pass wasn’t easy to take – but a little stretch and little juggle had Mallinder celebrating his return in style.

It could easily have been more in a frantic finale but unkind bobbles from running kicks denied DFJ a fifth try and Connor Robinson a deserved touchdown.