MATTY MARSH insists that York City Knights' three-decade winless streak at Whitehaven has not crossed his mind ahead of Sunday's trip to the Recreation Ground (3pm).

York have not won at Whitehaven since 1992, when Ryedale-York beat the Cumbrian club 26-13 in September of that year in the Third Division.

Since then, Haven have reeled off nine wins from the 10 subsequent meetings, with the only other result being a draw.

The two sides last met at 'the Recre' in March when Jonty Gormley's side emphatically knocked the Knights out of the Betfred Challenge Cup at the fifth round stage via a 38-12 defeat.

Despite York's miserly run of form at the venue, the players, Marsh insists, are taking little notice of the history books and are fully focused on the task at hand this weekend.

“It’s nothing that’s crossed my mind, but you hear about it in the build-up to the game," he said.

"We're just focusing on this year. We need these wins to stay in the top six and that’s what counts.

“The last few times we’ve been there, we’ve lost, so it’s obviously a challenge but I think we just have to concentrate on ourselves.

"Our standards haven’t been great in the last three or four games, so we have to get ourselves right.”

The visit to Cumbria is one of the longest away days in York's calendar, given that the Betfred Championship is mainly populated by Yorkshire clubs.

From this season, the Knights have introduced a light pre-match training session on the day of the game to their schedule for matches involving long-distance travel.

The cup exit aside, the move appears to have brought success, as seen in wins at London Broncos (24-26), Workington Town (18-44) and Barrow Raiders (18-30).

“It’s tough, it’s a lot of early morning starts," Marsh explained of the challenge of Cumbria trips.

"But it’s been quite decent this year, we stop on the way there for a swim and things like that.

"It does help you out a bit because it’s more just the travel that can get to you in those games.”

Returning to the field after the international break, James Ford's third-placed side resume their Betfred Championship campaign on a three-match winning streak, having beaten Sheffield Eagles (14-34), London Broncos (36-34) and Widnes Vikings (14-16).

None of those trio of wins, all secured in the space of 11 days, came easily though, with York trailing at half time in each match and needing 76th-minute and 74th-minutes tries to overcome London and Widnes respectively.

Reflecting on the tight win over the Vikings last time out, Marsh admitted: “It was nowhere near the standards that we want to be playing at.

"But I think, especially compared to last year, the fight and togetherness we’ve got is getting us those close-fought wins.

"It’s not to the standard we want, we’d obviously rather be winning by a lot more, but I think that togetherness is getting us more wins.”

The Knights will be boosted in their bid for a complete performance by the returns from injury of Brendan O'Hagan, Levi Edwards and Ronan Michael.

Marsh said: "It’s a big stage of the season, going into the second half of it now and we need those sort of players coming back so there’s more competition for places.

"We're looking forward to having them back in the team.”