KRISS BRINING insists York City Knights will aim to win at Rochdale on Sunday as a special thank you to the travelling fans.

And he says there is no chance of the team taking it easy against the Championship's bottom club.

The original fixture at Spotland in March was controversially called off just after the scheduled 3pm kick-off time due to “health and safety concerns” caused by high winds.

Both teams had been kitted out and were waiting to warm-up, but the covers on the pitch were still on and neither set of rugby posts at either end had been put up. More than 300 York fans had also made the journey over the Pennines, only to be told the game was off.

The fixture has been rearranged for 3pm this Sunday - clashing kick-off times directly with the final games of football's Premier League season - with supporters offered a discount £13 admission fee (or £10 concessions, free for under-16s).

Hooker Brining said: "I was strapped and in kit and ready to go. I've never had that before where you're all changed and ready to play and the game is called off. It was a shock.

"It was a waste of supporters' time. It's a long way to go to have to then come back.

"It will be nice if we can go there and get a good win for them, and hopefully we can."

The Knights bounced back from a late defeat away to high-flying Toulouse a fortnight ago to beat Batley at Bootham Crescent last Sunday, holding on to repel a Bulldogs fightback. It put them joint-third on points in the table after an eye-opening run of eight wins from 12 games since promotion.

Rochdale, who finished bottom last season but escaped relegation due to the league restructuring, have only one win from 11 outings this term.

But when asked if complacency may set in, Brining - who needs one try to equal Jack Lee's Knights record of 56 - said: "I would not say there is any complacency. We've got a lot of improvement in us.

"I don't feel we've been hitting our best performances for quite a while. Maybe the Easter period has had something to do with that. I feel we missed an opportunity in the Toulouse game but there's no point dwelling on that. We have to learn from it and kick on.

"But complacency? No. Underestimating anyone is never a thing. We treat every game the same."

Brining made his 100th appearance for the club in last week's home win over Batley.

On holding on for the points that day, he said: "I think we let them play a bit too fast. We weren't quite good enough in defence and made a few errors.

"You could maybe put it down to fatigue after Easter but they were in the same boat. They seemed to handle us pretty well so it's something we need to look at.

"We got there, though. We keep picking up points and it's really tight at the top now."