MARK Applegarth hopes to cause an upset when York Knights host St Helens later today.
York and St Helens will meet at the LNER Community Stadium for the first time in their history later today (5.30pm), with both teams fighting at opposite ends of the table.
Whilst the Knights are trying to pull away from the bottom of the table, the Saints will hope that some late season form can help secure a play-off finish.
After back-to-back defeats to Toulouse Olympique and Huddersfield Giants, York are seeking a reaction against a St Helens side that have won just one of their last four.
But Applegarth isn’t shying away from the fact that there is a gulf between the two clubs – and hopes his team can spring a surprise today.
“Eamon [O’Carroll, St Helens head coach] is a great coach, I obviously came up against him at Bradford and he had a very well-drilled team there.
“I think that Eamon will definitely tap into that identity and that connection and will get them together there.
“They’ve got a few bodies out at the moment, but let’s not beat around the bush, they’ve still got Jack Welsby who is one of the best English players.
“[Tristan] Sailor is one of the in-form players in the league and has been all year, Jackson Hastings is an ex-Man of Steel.
“You’ve got [Harry] Robertson, who in my opinion was one of the best young full-backs of the time when I watched him come through the ranks.
“They are obviously going through a bit of a change at this moment in time, but St Helens are St Helens.
“We know we will be in for a real tough game, they’ll have earmarked this one as a must win in the calendar with them pushing for the play-offs.
“We’re looking forward to that challenge, and I think it’s the first meeting between St Helens and York at the LNER Stadium.
“We’re really looking forward to welcoming them, locking horns and going to battle with them.
“It’s a great game to get back on the horse and to get back after.”
After three consecutive wins, back-to-back defeats for the Knights disrupted their momentum in the Super League.
Losing to bottom of the table Huddersfield at the LNER Community Stadium last week particularly stung, after York were able to beat the Giants just weeks earlier on Magic Weekend.
Asked what the right response looked like for his team, Applegarth responded: “I think the right response naturally is to play to win.
“A win is a byproduct of performance, so we’re just chasing that consistency in how we perform.
“Hitting our processes, I won’t bore you with the in’s and out’s of that, but making sure we do the hard things more than the opposition.
“We win the effort-based things, we stick to the process and aren’t deviating, we’re working as a team.
“Not drifting away from that, but also giving enough autonomy to individuals to showcase when the time is right.
“It’s getting that blend right, and you can underpin that through some real simple words such as clinical-ness, composure, words like that.
“Putting all of that into a bowl, mixing it together and hopefully baking a better cake.”
After a history of playing in Betfred League One and the Betfred Championship, it’s been a year of excitement for the Knights in their debut Super League campaign.
St Helens’ visit is the latest example for Applegarth, who called for supporters to be loud and proud at the LNER Community Stadium.
“I think it’s exciting times,” he agreed, “we don’t want it to just be exciting now, we want it to be a regular occurrence, we want fans coming and anticipating teams such at St Helens coming.
“They have a rich history of being one of the top teams in our sport.
“I’m really happy that it’s happening, it’s been a first for a lot of things this year.
“I thought the atmosphere amongst a lot of these perceived bigger teams – more established teams, known for competing for trophies – the atmosphere has been fantastic and the York public have been great in getting behind us.
“The whole event will be great, my job is to coach the team, but all I can say from a coaching point of view, the fans have been first class in backing us.
“They’ve been good when things haven’t being going our way, backing up and galvanising us, and then they’ve been really good when things have been going our way.
“Get behind the team again, we hear you and we know that there is some frustration at times there.
“Believe me, we’ll be doing everything we can to give you a performance to be proud of.”
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