MARK Applegarth hopes to give York Knights’ supporters a send off to remember as their first Betfred Super League season comes to an end on Thursday evening.
The Knights finish their maiden Super League campaign when hosting rivals Bradford Bulls at the LNER Community Stadium (8pm) this evening.
There’s still plenty to play for in both York and Bradford’s camp, as both teams look to avoid receiving the dreaded Wooden Spoon for finishing bottom in the Super League.
The Bulls currently occupy that 14th place spot, and would need a huge points swing in their favour to see the Knights replace them in that position, whilst there are also three other teams sandwiched between the rivals in the table.
Applegarth is still hoping for the Knights to put in a strong performance to end the season, with the head coach hoping to reward York fans’ efforts over the 2026 campaign
“It’s definitely a big motivation for us, we want to give our fans going into the off-season something to celebrate, I’m sure any team playing at home does,” Applegarth said in his post-match press conference.
“We can’t thank our support enough, they have been class.
“Whether we have been in a big win, like Saturday, the York turnout was unbelievable.
“It was probably one of my favourite memories at the club to date was the noise the fans made at Catalans.
“We want to give them something to celebrate too going into the off-season.
“It’s not just going to happen, we know we have to be at our best playing a very dangerous Bradford team.”
York head into the fixture off of the back of a 28-16 victory at Catalans Dragons last Saturday, which ended a run of four straight defeats for the Knights.
Applegarth was honest in his pre-match talk, saying he was likely to keep the same team to take on the Bulls, having also named the same 21-man preliminary squad.
The head coach admitted: “It’s always nice to try and keep a settled team, and we’ll be exactly the same as we were against Catalans.
“I don’t think there’s any secrets there, so that’s what we’ll be rolling with.
“It’s a massive, massive game for both teams, both teams will want to finish on a high.
“It was a tough game for us against Catalans on Saturday, but we’re relishing another tough game against Bradford at the LNER.
“We’re all in for that one, and we’re really looking forward to locking horns with Bradford again.”
For Bradford, they ended a similar run of concerning form last weekend when they defeated Castleford Tigers 32-22.
They had lost seven on the trot in the lead-up to that win at Odsal, with Applegarth saying he recognises the struggles Bradford had struggled through as of late in their own Super League campaign.
The focus remains on his own team’s game though, with the boss stating: “My focus is purely on York, I’m not lying to you when I say that we’ve been going one week at a time, making sure that we’re happy with the brand of rugby that we’re serving up.
“There are still areas of our game that we feel we can get better at, and until we’re happy with the brand we’re serving up, our opposition is second to us.
“We’re still chasing facets of our own game that we want to brush up and make sure we are happy calling ourselves a York Knights team doing.
“At the same time, it would be reckless to tell you that we don’t know what to be aware of with the opposition.
“We know exactly what is at stake there, but as I say, control the controllables.
“We can’t control what Bradford do, we can only control what we do.
“I have a lot of respect for Bradford, we’ve been in their shoes as well and were coming off of the back of four losses.
“We know exactly how they feel, but our focus is solely on ourselves and taking care of our business.”
York have plenty of history with the Bulls, with the two teams having some fierce battles in recent years.
Their most recent meeting came at Odsal back in June, which ended 30-20 in favour of the home team.
Applegarth believes both teams have ‘evolved’ since their last clash, saying: “It’s been a season of learning experiences.
“It was a frustrating game at the time, I don’t think both teams were firing on all cylinders, but Bradford were good enough to get the win on us then.
“It’s a new game, a few months further down the line and both teams have evolved since then.
“There are some learnings we can lean on, but more importantly, we want to tidy up the areas against Catalans that we feel we can be better at.”
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