KRISS BRINING vowed that there is plenty more to come from York City Knights with the new league season underway in less than a fortnight.

York remained awaiting their first win of 2020 after falling to a 16-6 defeat to Halifax at Bootham Crescent on Sunday following the 12-12 draw at Featherstone Rovers at the start of the month.

The Knights make the trip to the Tetley's Stadium, Dewsbury to face Bradford Bulls to round-off their pre-season campaign on Sunday ahead of their first Betfred Championship game away to Toulouse Olympique on Saturday, February 1.

And, hooker Brining thinks that improvements must be shown by the Knights following a "scratchy" display in order to kick-start the new year.

“I thought that we did a few things well," he reflected.

“There were a few things that we were looking to improve upon from the Featherstone game that I thought that we did alright.

“Some of our contact was pretty good, as was our floor work.

“But, we weren’t very clinical in attack and, especially in good ball, we put the ball down quite a lot and didn’t finish our sets how we wanted to.

“As you could see it was a pretty scratchy game.

“And, I just think that there’s a lot more left in us.

“I think we’re all a little bit disappointed with how we’ve played.

"But it’s only our second warm-up game and we’ve got one more to go next week.

“We’ve still got time to improve and hopefully we’ll be a lot better come the Toulouse game.

“You can’t really simulate everything in training.

“You need to be playing in these games and getting it right here.

“We’ll work harder at training and hopefully we can have a decent game against Bradford."

The first-half finished with neither side putting points on the board - somewhat of a rarity in rugby league - with Halifax going on to outscore the Knights by three tries to one.

The quality of the kicking from Fax half-backs Tom Gilmore and Scott Grix, both formerly of Super League, shone through and proved decisive.

On the first-half, Brining said: “I think anyone here watching the game could see why the game was like that because both sides weren’t probably at their best in attack and the scoreboard probably reflected that.

“Halifax have been a quality team for years and they’ve got some big middles and some smart halves.

“Their backs carry the ball really strong and I thought that we did alright with them.

“But, the tries that we conceded, a couple of them coming off kicks, is disappointing.

"We know where we need to improve, so we’ll look at it in the week and hopefully be better against Bradford and Toulouse.

The game was Brining's first of the year having recovered from a tibia problem over the off-season.

“That injury is fine," he reported, "but I think overstretched on my rib right at the back.

"I think one of my intercostal muscles might have popped a little bit, which is annoying more than anything."

The spine of the Knights' side remains largely the same from last year aside from the addition of Halifax half-back Ben Johnston.

“I think that Jono and Connor (Robinson) will be good for us," Brining predicted.

"They’ve played together before and they’ll get better with the more games they play.

"I think we’ll find Jono’s strengths, he’s got a good running game."