The York City Knights are starting off their season against Widnes Vikings. The knights are in good form against the Vikings, winning six in a row. They finished sixth last season and were able to get into the playoffs whereas Widnes finished seventh, 10 points behind them.
The Knights had a friendly match against Doncaster RLFC where they won 28-12. York City scored four tries to make without conceding in the second half to make a comeback as they were trailing 12-8 at half-time. They also had two of their new signings score, Conor Fitzsimmons and Josh Daley.
The Vikings had three pre-season matches: Rochdale Hornets, Oldham RLFC and St Helens. They beat Rochdale and Oldham quite convincingly but they narrowly lost to St Helens 16-12. They have built some good form heading into this season.
The Knights are heading into this match with a new coach: Andrew Henderson who said the he hopes his journey “to be a bright one” with York. Andrew and his squad needs time to adapt which would give the Vikings some hope to break their bad run against them. The Knights would need some time to adapt to the new coach’s style so the performances might not be up to speed until later in the season, there could be no better time for Widnes to break their bad form against York.
Andrew said in the press conference that he’s “not setting a target for the season” which shows that York are in a rebuilding season which could mean that they might not finish in the play-offs like they did last season. It could also hint that the state of the club right now is that they might not be able to challenge this season. However, Andrew revealed that their season ticket sales have “gone up by 20%” which shows that the atmosphere is going to be good at LNER Community Stadium. The fans clearly seems excited for the new chapter of their club.
It’s going to be a good and tough match that will be entertaining for the fans. This game could go either way but if the Vikings were ever to beat their bad run against the Knights, it could be this game.