JAMES FORD has insisted that York City Knights will not lose their self-belief after the weekend’s 18-12 defeat to London Broncos took their losing league run to four matches.

York have yet to record a victory thus far in the 2020 Betfred Championship following their remarkable third-placed finish last year.

The Knights put in arguably their best league performance at the weekend at Bootham Crescent, creating the majority of the game’s chances, particularly in the second half, but again coming away from the game without any points.

Head coach Ford was keen to stress that heads will not drop in his changing room.

“I know that we’ve lost four on the bounce but we’ve got good players and a good culture and we will address it,” he said.

“We are not losing our self-belief and the players are not losing their self-belief.

“It’s going to take more than a couple of defeats for me to lose my self-belief. (The fans) need to stick with us as they did (on Sunday) and together we’ll sort it.”

Hooker Reiss Butterworth was particularly impressive on debut having signed on a one-month loan from Huddersfield Giants last week.

The former Bradford Bulls youngster played plenty of minutes when replacing Will Jubb from the bench.

“He’s crafty, he’s good at his deception and he gives something a little different goal line with his little short kicks,” said Ford.

“I thought that he defended a lot better than he did last year and I was really pleased with his contact.”

The Knights boss also praised the performance of prop forward James Green, one of seven off-season recruits.

“I was really pleased with Greeny,” he said.

"I thought that he carried really strongly and got things going quickly for us.

“He made some metres after contact and made some good offloads and he’s working really hard at his game defensively.

“I’m really pleased with James. I often talk about the culture at this club and it is really strong.

“Greeny’s come in early on Tuesday and he’s doing extra fitness and he’s asking the conditioner what else he can do.

“He’s gone out and done some extra skill stuff as well.”

Matty Marsh notched both tries for the Knights in the Broncos defeat, setting himself up for the first with a grubber kick.

Connor Robinson - whose reverse kick created the second for Marsh - added the extras for both.

Jason Bass and Will Sharp both came back into the side.

On the game, Ford said: “Good rugby games are arm wrestles and games that aren’t arm wrestles, there’s something wrong with the defence.

“We were ripping into London and they were ripping into us. They’re limiting the metres that you make and (mean that) you’re kicking from the halfway line and maybe from their 40 at most.

“Ultimately we’ve done that for a number of years and been successful and we’ll continue to do that.

“I thought that Sharpy was great and played with loads of energy and he ran hard and got on his front.

"He got our sets going pretty quickly.

“There was a moment when Bassy has gone back when Cory Aston has tried to kick a 40/20 – he’s a great kicker is Cory – he’s running back with the sun in his eye and he’s caught it one-handed.

“That’s what I’ve been alluding to, you sometimes need big players to come up with big moments in key plays.

“That was a great play from Bassy."