"We're in it together!" - Ford hails York City Knights army after crucial win at Workington Town

The Knights had not won a league game anywhere in Cumbria since 2009 but they finally ended that run with a gritty 18-14 victory in the rain at Derwent Park.

It kept them two points above Bradford Bulls with three games to go, albeit with tough tests still to come.

And Ford said the “togetherness” with the fans helped to get them through against a team who had beaten Bradford twice this season and who will be a “genuine threat” in the play-offs.

“They were great,” said Ford of the supporters. “They turned up in huge number – 300, 400 of them – and they made as much noise as the Workington supporters.

“I keep saying it. When we’re under the pump and they get behind us, we do find energy.

“They’re a reason for us to keep turning up for each other.”

Ford said the team bus was to meet up with the supporters’ bus on the way back to York.

“We’re in it together and we really appreciate what they do,” he explained.

“They’ve been fantastic to me since I took over and they’re growing in numbers, and hopefully we can keep doing what we’re doing and achieve our goal.”

He added: “I am proud of how hard we worked and how committed we are to our goal.

“We need to celebrate this win but we’ve got a real tough game next week against a side we really rate in Oldham.”

Two stunning breakaway tries helped the Knights turn an 8-6 deficit into an 18-8 lead, after which Ford’s men saw the game out – trying to pin Town back rather than score more points.

Ford reasoned: “I would have taken a 1-0 victory here. There’s a time and a place to play expansive rugby.

“The scenario and the weather dictated we took a different approach this time and the boys did that effectively.”

Asked about falling 8-6 behind, Ford said: “We weren’t panicking because we knew the (6-0) lead we’d had was probably not going be a game-sealing lead, and we knew it wouldn’t be high-scoring with the conditions and with both teams making errors due to the greasy nature of the weather and the contact that was going in.

“I knew my boys would out-defend Workington, keep working hard from the inside, and have plenty of grit about them to hang in there.

“We’ve done it on a number of occasions where we’ve defended for 10, 15 or 20 minutes on our goal-line to see a game out.

“We needed to stay composed and we managed to see the game through.”

He added: “It was a really gusty performance from both sets of players. The game was alive in the last play.

“To be honest, what got us through was our togetherness, solidarity and desire to defend back-to-back sets.

“For far too long York sides have not been able to defend their goal-line and not been able to repeat efforts.

“We’ve worked hard at becoming a grittier side, a tougher side. Some of that is to do with the personnel we’ve brought in – people like Tim Spears, Ben Cockayne, Sam Scott – but I couldn’t be more proud of our willingness to work hard for each other.

“Nobody gives in. If nobody gives in and everyone works as hard as they possible can, then, as a coach, you’ve got to be pretty happy with what they’re doing.”

Ford also hailed the length-of-the-field tries by Connor Robinson and Joe Batchelor that effectively turned the game their way just when Workington looked to be getting on top.

He explained: “With the conditions, we'd spoken about reacting to errors better than them, because sides are going to make errors when it’s as greasy as that, and I think that was probably the difference between the sides.

“It was about our willingness and awareness to react to errors, to get on loose balls.

"Joe Batchelor got back and saved one when (Sean) Penkywicz kicked it through (towards York's line), and obviously we reacted to some loose balls to score those breakaway tries.”

As well as lauding his own team, Ford spoke to Workington’s players on the pitch after the game to congratulate their efforts.

He added: “I’ll tell you now, they are a genuine threat (in the play-offs)."