CH preview: York v Batley (Sun)

Relegated York City Knights will aim to bow out of the Kingstone Press Championship with a final victory when they host Batley Bulldogs on Sunday.

The Knights’ midweek defeat to Doncaster ensured they will drop a division at the end of the season.

Coach Gary Thornton said: “We can’t feel sorry for ourselves. We are where we are.

“We’ve been competitive a lot of time, but we haven’t been able to turn narrow defeats into wins.”

Johnny Campbell and Byron Smith both look set to be available for Batley after overcoming recent injury concerns.

But coach John Kear insists he will not play anybody who is not 100 per cent fit.

Kear said: “If there are any doubts, we won’t risk them – we’ve got the play-offs coming up and we want to be right for those.”

He added: “We played really well against Leigh last week, and it’s now a matter of backing that up.

“We’ve won three of our last four, so we’re certainly not stuttering. We’re in good form.

“While July was a poor month for us, August was a very good month for us.”

On York, he added: “They played on Wednesday so it’s difficult to say how they’ll rock up, but all we can do is prepare the best we can and be ready to play come Sunday.”