Thorman pleased by York progress

York travel to Sheffield tonight needing just a point to progress to the knockout stages of the Northern Rail Cup.

Player-coach Chris Thorman has been pleased by his side’s start to the season, which saw them win three games in eight days against Doncaster, Swinton and Gateshead.

Thorman said: “To win three out of three in a normal situation would be great, but to do it in eight days is a fair effort. I can’t stress enough how tough it is to play that amount of games in a short space of time.

“Friday is our fourth game in 13 days. It’s another tough ask and it will be our hardest game so far against a very good Sheffield side. This period going to tell me a lot about my squad, and so far they’ve passed most of the tests.”

Waine Pryce (quad) and Paul King (elbow) are likely to miss out for the Knights, who know exactly what’s needed on Friday.

Thorman added: “We need a bonus point to get through to the last eight.

“That’s not a bad focus to have. We need to get something from the game, and that’s good for us. We go into it knowing exactly what we need to do.”