JAMES FORD has resigned as York City Knights head coach, ending a transformative eight-year reign at the club.

The “difficult and tough call” to depart York comes after more than a decade at the club, having first joined as a player back in 2011.

Ford explained that he is now “ready for a new challenge” and will become assistant coach of Wakefield Trinity.

The long-serving boss stressed that no internal dispute had led to his decision, having only signed a deal until the end of 2024 in November. His departure has instead been motivated by now being “the right time to move on”.

Ford’s departure closes a hugely successful spell in charge of the Knights during which the club have gone from the brink of closure in the third tier to now holding genuine Betfred Super League aspirations.

Ford was named as head coach ahead of the 2015 season, a year in which York played at amateur grounds amid financial difficulties.

York were close to folding a year later under former chairman John Guildford before Jon Flatman took ownership of the club.

After three straight League One play-off semi-final defeats, the Knights returned to the Championship by defying the odds to topple big-spending rivals Bradford Bulls to the third-tier title in 2018.

In their first season back in the second tier, Ford’s side surpassed all expectations by placing third, finishing as the highest-positioned English team outside of Super League and doing so with a much inferior budget to their play-off rivals.

The finish was the club’s highest since reforming as the Knights in 2003 and the highest by a York team since 1985/86.

York fell to a disappointing ninth in 2021, but still managed to reach the AB Sundecks 1895 Cup final, losing 41-34 to Featherstone Rovers in the club’s first Wembley Stadium appearance since 1931.

This year, in which Ford reached 200 matches in charge, the Knights re-established their place in the play-offs, finishing sixth and shocking Halifax Panthers 26-24 to record their first Championship play-off win.