JAMES FORD is seeking that York City Knights redress their “chaotic” attack when they visit Widnes Vikings on Sunday (3pm).

York edged past London Broncos 36-34 last time out in the Betfred Championship but Ford was unhappy with the organisation of his side’s offence.

The head coach is demanding an improvement when his side, currently third in the table, make the trip to the DCBL Stadium to take on ninth-placed Widnes this weekend.

“I want to see us back to the levels that we’re capable of on Sunday,” said Ford. “I thought we made some pretty sloppy errors with the ball (against London).

“I want to see us nailing our plan with the ball. Some of what we served up against London was I could best describe as chaotic, it just didn’t resemble anything close to what we’re trying to do.

“There were a couple of sets where we did three dummy-half carries, found a point, but then made another dummy-half carry and we kicked it, which is nowhere near what we’re trying to do.

“That’s just not good enough in terms of helping us beat the top sides in the division.”

Ford also wants to see more from his side at the back. Having conceded two tries or fewer six times in a 10-match spell at one stage, York have conceded 88 points in their last three games.

“I think our defence has fallen off a little bit,” admitted Ford. “Our contact and our third-man efforts and our squash, it’s not been at the levels we’re used to seeing in a York team.

“That’s afforded our opponents plenty of tempo and being on the back foot, the game is harder.

“It’s harder to get your defensive systems right and when you’ve got the ball you’re a little bit juiced.

“A big part of training this week will be tidying up, reinforcing, and clarifying what we expect and our standards in defence.

“We’ll be tested by Widnes. They’ve got some really good players, so it’s a really good opportunity for us to show that we’re acting on the feedback in training and we’re nailing it in practise.”

The Knights face a Widnes side on a rotten run of form. The Cheshire club have won just one of their last 11 matches and currently find themselves seven points adrift of the play-off places, having been tipped by some for a top six finish in pre-season.

Despite the recent fortunes of the Vikings, Ford is expecting a stiff test for his side, particularly given the calibre of some of the individuals they will be facing.

The York boss said: “They’ll be boosted by the return of Jack Owens, who is a tremendous attacking player and does some really intelligent things and has got a great combination with Danny Craven and Matty Smith in the halves, so the spine of their team is really strong.

“They do test teams with their shape and their intelligence. Steve Tyrer carries a threat in terms of changing the momentum of games and he has a bit of a late spin and a late offload. We need to get our detail right around him.

“They carry threat with their kicking game too. (Matty) Fozard kicks out of dummy-half and Smith and Craven are both fantastic kickers.

“It’d be remiss of me not to highlight (Adam) Lawton. He’s probably the only player in the division bigger than Pauli (Pauli).

“They’re smart with him, they put him over the top of little fellas close to the line.

“So we’ll have to be good. They might not be where they want to be in the league but they’ve certainly got some threat in their team.”

York have made just one change to their 21-man squad to face Widnes, with Masi Matongo replacing Sam Davis.

York City Knights squad: Marsh, Brown, Glover, Ogden, Ellis, Matongo, Jubb, Teanby, Clarkson, Pauli, Thompson, Dixon, Stock, Kirmond, Harris, Warren, Harrison, Towse, Ward, Antrobus, Porter.