James Ford says there are “promising signs” for York

York City Knights head coach James Ford says there were plenty of “promising signs” from his side after they eased to a 34-0 win over Dewsbury Rams.

In the final pre-season outing for both sides, it was York who comfortably came out on top, scoring seven tries and managing to nil their opponents.

With their return to the Betfred Championship just weeks away, Ford says he’s pleased with the direction in which his squad are heading.

“I thought parts of our performance tonight was promising,” he said. “I thought that we scored some really exciting tries and it’s always pleasing to concede zero points from a defensive point of view.”

“I can see us forging some good partnerships in the team. When we got our execution right, we scored some really good tries and that’s a really promising sign.

“For us, I feel like we’re moving in the right direction. We’re not quite there yet, but we’re getting close.”

“We certainly won’t get carried away with the result as it was only a warm-up game, but there was certainly some promising signs.”

Earlier in the day, York completed the signing of Salford hooker Kriss Brining, a major for the club.

“Kriss is certainly going to be real asset for us,” added Ford. “He’s very strong defensively, which I like about his game. He’s a fantastic athlete as well.”

“Most importantly, he’s a great person, who’s really well brought up, he’s polite, respectful. He’s an asset not just for the team, but for the whole club.”

“He’s incredibly strong going forward as well and hopefully we’ll see that when he gets a York shirt on.”

Some have tipped York as outside contenders for a spot in the play-offs, but when asked about the club’s ambitions for 2019 Ford was coy to answer.

“We’ve spoken about our goals inside of the group, but it’s not something that we’re going to speak about outside of that,” he said.