YORK City Knights will travel to Cumbria a day early in a bid to bolster their preparations for Sunday's potentially decisive game against Workington Town.

James Ford's men replaced Bradford at the top of Betfred League One last time out as their victory over Hunslet was allied to the Bulls' surprise defeat to Town at Odsal.

However, defeat at Derwent Park to a buoyant team now in third place would hand the initiative right back to Bradford - and head coach Ford hopes that cutting out the three-and-a-half-hour trek on the day of the game will boost their chances in what traditionally has been unhappy territory for the Minster city club.

"I'm really pleased the club are backing us in this way to assist our preparations for the match," said Ford.

"We will travel up after training on Saturday, have something to eat, and get ready for the game. It just cuts down on travel time on the day."

After being given all of last week off, the Knights returned to training on Tuesday in fine fettle, according to Ford, and had their usual Thursday session last night.

But instead of training again tonight, they have switched that session to tomorrow morning, after which they will head over to the far North West coast and stay in a hotel in Whitehaven, just eight miles down the road from Workington.

It is the first time the Knights will have travelled the day before a game since last year's play-off semi-final against Whitehaven, which ended in heartbreak after an epic encounter featuring a world record 25 minutes of golden-point extra time.

Meanwhile, Ford was optimistic that giving the team last week off will also prove beneficial.

With no fixtures across virtually all of rugby league last weekend due to the Challenge Cup final, Ford allowed the players nine days of downtime.

He said: "They came back (on Tuesday) in good shape physically and trained really well.

"The initial signs are it was the right thing to do (to give the players the week off). I have confidence in their professionalism. I wanted them to relax and let go for a few days and the majority, if not all, of them have done the right things, just like they have done for the 40-odd weeks since pre-season."