YORK City Knights as expected enjoyed a straightforward victory at Hemel Stags to take another step towards the Betfred League One crown – but Bradford Bulls made sure the title race will go down to the last weekend.

The Knights’ superior power, pace, skill and structure was evident from the off at Pennine Way and, while they were far from their best, they did more than enough to comfortably beat the expansion club 56-6 – Ben Cockayne leading the try-scoring with a hat-trick.

The highlight was Connor Robinson equalling Danny Brough’s all-time York RL goals in a season record, kicking eight out of 10 to take him to 178 for the year – the width of a post denying him the outright record.

He also notched a try to make it 20 points on the day and 404 for the season – taking him to within eight of Brough’s points in a season record, too.

Of more concern, though, were the results here and at Whitebank, and, while a York victory was nailed on after early tries, Bradford did what they needed to do too – coming from 10-0 down to beat Oldham 24-16.

The downside of that is that York, who had hoped the Roughyeds could upset the Bulls and hand them the crown, now need to beat Whitehaven on the final weekend. Haven, of course, turned James Ford’s team over in Cumbria earlier in the season, and they need another victory to reach the play-offs.

The upside is that if the Knights are to win the title, they’ll do it in front of their own noisy fans – many of whom made the long trip to Hertfordshire to enjoy this 14th straight win.

The Knights’ other goal at Pennine Way, aside winning the game, was avoiding injuries ahead of next week’s decider.

However, centre Perry Whiteley, in only his second outing since joining from Keighley, twisted his right ankle in an awkward fall on the half-hour mark, and given the way he was helped off the field and later needed crutches, his season looks over.

Ford had made six changes to the side that edged Workington and Oldham in those recent humdingers – another of which can be expected next week.

Rested with that game in mind were hooker Andy Ellis, top scorer Joe Batchelor, Aussie forward Joel Edwards and second-row Sam Scott.

Dual-reg winger Will Oakes, meanwhile, was recalled by parent club Hull KR, while Adam Robinson – set to make his 250th career appearance – was a late withdrawal due to a calf problem, although he is likely to be available next week.

In their respective steads came Will Jubb, the luckless Whiteley, Jack Ormondroyd, Mike Kelly, former York Acorn amateur Matt Chilton, and prop Dan Hawksworth.

Hemel player-boss Jack Howieson, an old mate of Ford’s from their days at Sheffield Eagles, was on the bench for the hosts.

Among their line-up were ex-Knights Paul Stamp, Austin Bell, looking heftier than in his York days, and Mark Barlow.

Three tries inside 13 minutes sent the Knights on the road to victory.

Cockayne sidestepped through and then rounded full-back Matt Welham for the opener, Tim Spears twisted over from Jubb’s flat ball on the try-line, and then Cockayne took the scoring pass after prop Ronan Dixon had broken the line with power and a nice step.

Mistakes under restarts in the swirling wind afforded the hosts some attacking sets but these merely gave the Knights some handy goal-line defence practice.

The lead increased on 18 minutes when Robinson dummied through from 10 metres, and again three minutes later after Ormondroyd’s first involvement off the bench.

The on-loan Leeds prop blasted through and fed Cockayne and, while the stand-off had to wait for his hat-trick due to a good Welham tackle, Kelly got over.

When Whiteley departed prematurely, Joe Porter filled in at centre. He immediately should have set up the next try when breaking through, but, with winger Ash Robson and full-back Matty Marsh on either side, he could not get his hands sorted in time and the chance evaporated.

That heralded a 14-minute hiatus in the scoring, as the game – and the Knights – got scrappy.

Indeed, it looked like Hemel had crossed on the back of a Porter error but Sonny Esslemont was adjudged to have knocked on when held up over the whitewash.

Instead, on the back of two penalties, York increased their lead – Cockayne completing his hat-trick as he used dummy runners as foils to breeze through.

York should have scored again before half-time as they sent the ball left but Stags winger Darren Forde intercepted – his race upfield being curtailed by Harry Carter and Cockayne’s joint efforts.

Robinson, meanwhile, had goaled all six first-half tries to bring up his 400th point of the season.

The scoring resumed two minutes into the second half as hooker Carter sped away from dummy-half to bag a super 40-metre solo try.

However, York again got scruffy. Their defence remained determined and structured but, with ball in hand, it was messy – underlined when Cockayne’s long pass left was picked off by Stamp.

That briefly changed just before the hour mark when Robson provided the inspiration with a half-break and offload on the run to fellow winger Chilton, who made ground down the left and sent the ball inside for Marsh to speed to the sticks, giving Robinson an easy goal.

Then Josh Jordan-Roberts broke down the left and sent Brad Hey racing home for a deserved try.

Hey didn’t make the conversion easy though and Robinson hit a post as he looked to equal Brough’s record.

Nevertheless he made no mistake two minutes later with his eighth goal of the day after he himself had skilfully sent Marsh racing home.

Hemel, with a more rounded second-half display, fought on and got on the board seven minutes from time as Howieson touched down a neat kick from Kieran Smith, who added the goal.

That was the last word, too, as York were denied on the hooter - Chilton winning an aerial battle under a Robinson kick to the corner only for opposite winger Forde to haul him down.