JAMES FORD has called for York City Knights to show "resilience and togetherness" as they look to overturn their losing league run against London Broncos on Sunday.

York have lost all of their three Betfred Championship games so far and their task to end such form doesn't get much easier as they face of the league's two completely full-time sides at Bootham Crescent.

The Knights have not lost four successive league matches in a single season since August 2016.

Ironically though, their sole victory of 2020 came against London at the Ealing Trailfinders a fortnight ago in the Coral Challenge Cup, fighting back from twice being behind to win 24-22.

And while head coach Ford said that his side can take confidence from the victory, he stressed that his side must show plenty of character to kickstart their season.

"Can we take confidence from our last performance against them? Yeah, I think we can," said Ford.

"We went down there and initially they put us under the pump and we hung in there and fought our way back into the game.

"That's what we need to do on Sunday, we need to come out and show some resilience and some togetherness.

"It's easy to show that character when things falling into place for you, 24/7.

"But, when your hair is ruffled a little bit and your nose is bleeding, that's when you need to show some resilience.

"And that's what I will be expecting from the boys at the weekend.

"On Tuesday we had a good look at why we lost the game and tonight (Thursday) we're going to have a look at the things that we've been doing really well and we'll talk about a response and really building into this London game and really coming out all guns blazing."

York didn't suffer back-to-back regular season defeats in either the 2018 or 2019 seasons - another marker of the successes which saw them win the League 1 title and seal third spot in the Championship.

With that said, Ford feels he can draw his experiences back in the 2017 season and the testing period gone through in that campaign.

"We have had things pretty good for the past two or three seasons," Ford added. "Even before then, we were fairly comfortable in making the semi-finals of League 1.

"It reminds me a little bit of the 2017 season at the start. We lost to Oxford and North Wales twice and we beat South Wales, as they were called then, by two points and we were probably a little bit fortunate.

"It was a tough period but these things are set to test us and we came through it as better people, better players and a better team.

"We kicked on after that and had a decent season. I don't see any reason why we can't do the same again this year.

"The culture here is really good and the players are working really hard."

Former England Knights international Kieran Dixon didn't feature against York when the two last met, and Ford was singled him out as one of London's danger men at the weekend.

"We've had a good look at London and their strengths," said the coach. "They move the ball really well and challenge you with their shapes.

"Kieran Dixon's an incredibly threatening player. He skirts off the line with his footwork and speed.

"Eddie Battye is a tremendous player, he gets his nose down and plays quick.

"They're an all-round good side and they'll certainly be up there come the end of the season. They're not having all their own way at the minute themselves.

"But, that's irrelevant to us, we've just got to focus on ourselves and, if that puts a little bit more pressure on London, then so be it."

The game is York's first competitive match at Bootham Crescent since September.

"It feels like it's been an age since we've been there," said Ford, "and we are really looking forward to getting back there, to some home comfort.

"I'm sure that the York fans will be there getting behind us in numbers and the boys really respond to that.

"They're key at this moment. It's not just the players that need to stick together and show some resilience, it's the supporters as well.

"They make a big difference."