YORK Knights half-back Liam Harris hopes that yesterday’s 28-18 comeback victory against play-off chasers Halifax Panthers will be the turning point of their Betfred Championship season.

A run of six defeats in all competitions had seen the Knights slide perilously towards the drop, and only above the relegation zone on points difference, but Andrew Henderson’s charges propelled themselves up to 10th place with a fantastic effort in North Yorkshire.

Left feeling weary after three matches in the space of seven days - including a heartbreaking 26-24 defeat at Whitehaven in midweek - York were a side transformed to twice draw themselves level against a strong Halifax team, before outstanding tries from former Heworth youngsters Myles Harrison and AJ Towse saw them claim an unlikely yet crucial two points.

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Without key influences including ever-present hooker Will Jubb, half-back Ata Hingano and veteran second-rower Danny Kirmond, it was an extremely characterful performance from the Knights, and one that Harris believes may help to define their season.

And with next weekend’s opponents Keighley Cougars reeling from both the loss of  playmakers including Dane Chisholm, Ben Crooks and Brenden Santi - the latter of whom is now at York - and a catastrophic 74-12 defeat at local rivals Bradford Bulls, it is hard to disagree.

“[Halifax] are a good team and they’ll be right up there in the play-offs come the end of the year I’m sure,” he reflected.

“They’re really well coached, and let’s not hide around it, it’s a really good win for us.

“Our challenge now is to back it up against Keighley next week and hopefully that’s a turning point of our season.

“We’ve got a couple more bodies back.

“I don’t know if we’ll have any time to build those combinations because our bodies are sore, but hopefully that is a turning point in our season and we can start looking up from here.”