HEAD coach James Ford insists his York City Knights team will be able to produce back-to-back battling performances in their scrap for the Betfred League One crown.

The Knights pulled off one of their best results of the season on Sunday with an 18-14 victory in the drizzle at third-placed Workington Town, in what is traditionally an unhappy hunting ground. It was also Ford's first-ever win in Cumbria as a coach.

But, to stay at the top of the table, they will have to do it all again on Sunday at home to a rough tough Oldham team who like Town are a big threat for promotion through the play-offs.

The Roughyeds were competing in the Championship last season - and they won comfortably, 32-10, at Worky earlier in the season.

Asked about the difficulty of backing up one bruising effort after another, Ford said: "We need to make sure our preparation is bang on, as we really rate Oldham.

"We're just going to focus on them. We can only do one game at a time.

"We need to turn up and be as good as we can be and aim to be better than we were against Workington. Being better than we were last week - that's been the ethos all season."

The Knights remain two points ahead of Bradford Bulls at the summit, with three games left.

Bradford, though, now have a better points-difference after their 54-4 derby rout of Keighley on Sunday and they face an even easier points-fest this weekend at win-less whipping boys West Wales Raiders.

Basically, York cannot afford to lose.

Ford, who began his full-time role at the club this week, said: "We've not spoken about anything other than the next game.

"We enjoyed Sunday's win - the boys had to work hard and it's right that they should enjoy it. But attentions quickly turned to Oldham and that's been our focus this week. This is now the biggest game."

The victory at Workington was built on a big defensive effort rather than flashy attacking rugby. It was also the sixth time this term that the Knights have won a game by just one score - in stark contrast to the two world record wins against West Wales and a few other huge points tallies.

One of those narrow wins was away to Oldham in March, by 24-22.

Said Ford of last Sunday's bruiser: "That's how you win championships. You can't turn up every week and be a nine or 10 out of 10 in every game.

"It's the desire, systems and your character as much as anything that gets you through.

"We haven't always blown teams away and we've had some criticism in that regard on occasion, like against Doncaster or Newcastle away. But that's fine - you have to take the rough with the smooth.

"But my teams always turn up and I have not seen one York player give in. We will take that into the Oldham game."

He added: "It was a small field in greasy conditions (at Workington). It was a game of territory. We rate our defence. It was a case of get them into corners and keep the ball in play to zap their energy, and make them have to go 80 or 90 metres."

Asked if such game management was down to the old heads in the side, like skipper Tim Spears, hooker Andy Ellis and prop Graeme Horne, Ford said: "It's not just them.

"They (the squad) are a smart bunch. They're good in review and preview and you can tell they understand the game, and that helps us manage scenarios like that.

"You can see that from the number of close games we've won this year.

"You have to credit the players' work ethic and togetherness but it's also been down to game management."