JAMES FORD hailed the “flexibility and versatility” that York City Knights showed in their hard-fought 30-20 victory at Dewsbury Rams.

York showed a different aspect to their game against Dewsbury a week on from their free-scoring 64-16 thrashing of Swinton Lions last time out.

The Knights had to dig deep on several occasions and it was not until the 77th minute that victory was secured thanks to Matty Marsh’s late try.

“We knew that it was going to be a very different challenge,” said the York head coach. "I spoke before about Swinton being a very shift-orientated team and looking challenge you laterally where as Dewsbury are very north-south team.

“They’re a ‘bring your shoulder pads and your gum shields because you’re going to need them’ type of team.

“I was pleased that we’ve shown that we’ve got some flexibility and versatility and can compete against teams in different styles.

“Obviously aside from last week, there’s not going to be many high-scoring games here because of the field, so we knew that we needed to out-work Dewsbury and out-complete Dewsbury and out-box kick Dewsbury.

“And we knew that that was going to be a challenge because they’re good at it.”

Ford believes that Dewsbury - who finished 12th in the Betfred Championship in 2019 - will cause a few upsets this year at the Tetley’s Stadium.

“I thought Dewsbury were really good,” he said. “They put us under pressure and they were right in the game at the end, as we expected.

“It’s a very challenging field and Dewsbury are a very good team and they play this field well. They had their moments in the game where they challenged us and we had to be strong.

“They run hard, they tackle hard and they’ve got some big boys. They’ve recruited a side to play on this field and they’re a challenge. 

“They will knock off some teams here, I’m absolutely confident of that."