ASH ROBSON reckons York City Knights will have a goal to win the new-look Yorkshire Cup - even if it is only a pre-season competition.

The knockout tournament has been resurrected for 2019 but will not feature Super League clubs and is seen by many as only a warm-up comp for the start of the Betfred Championship and League One campaigns.

It has therefore been met with mixed views and it is unclear if the coaches of the eight competing clubs will use the matches primarily as glorified friendlies. But Robson for one wants to win the thing to set York up nicely for their return to the second tier.

"Knowing James Ford (head coach) and how competitive he is, I would think he will probably want to win it," said the 23-year-old, who was arguably York's man of the match in their opening run-out of pre-season, the Boxing Day friendly at Bradford Bulls.

"Personally, I was majorly cheesed off that we didn't beat Bradford so if I'm playing I will want to win. If I'm not playing, I will still be cheering the boys on and wanting us to get the win."

The Knights take on amateurs Hunslet Club Parkside in the first round on Saturday (1pm), with the game taking place at Dewsbury as part of a double-header, to be followed by the host Rams club's tie against Featherstone.

Parkside were late entrants, taking the place of troubled League One club Keighley Cougars who pulled out due to off-field issues.

Robson has mixed feelings about warm-up matches in general having ruptured a kneecap in the last minute of a friendly in 2016 while playing for Castleford Tigers against Bradford. Having been tipped for a breakthrough season with the Super League club that year, he instead spent it on the sidelines before kickstarting his career at hometown club York in 2017.

"I can imagine there being a lot of mixed opinions across players and staff," he said when asked if the Yorkshire Cup would be well received.

"One argument against is maybe around injuries. I know that personally from when I did my knee playing for Cas against Bradford that ruled me out for the season. That should have been my breakthrough year. I'd got man of the match the week before against Featherstone and had played pretty well against Bradford when that happened in the last minute.

"Then again you can get injuries at any time - it's just part of playing sport.

"I'm probably on the fence a little bit. I can see both sides.

"I want to get as many minutes in my lungs as I can and make sure I'm as fit as possible for the first game (of the Championship season), so that's important. You can do however much in training as you want but nothing preps you as much as playing games.

"But you also want to win every match you play and I don't see why that should change here. It will be a good test. Parkside are a very good team and they'll be keen to take a pro scalp. We don't expect anything other than a tough game."