THIS weekend's opponents, York, gave us two very good games last year that both hinged on a last-minute goal kick.

They were two-point games and we were fortunate to win at Bootham Crescent while they got the spoils at Odsal. They were both good games and I am expecting something similar this time around.

I have watched all three of their games this season; I thought they were really good in their game against Toronto, with their spirit and effort in defence.

Perhaps their worst performance was against Dewsbury, but they really did bounce back with an absolutely tremendous performance against Barrow. To beat a real good Barrow team 56-0 really sends a shot across everybody’s bow in the Championship.

They have strengthened well but I thought they had a very good team last season – one that, in my opinion, could certainly have handled the Championship.

That’s been demonstrated in their first three games and I am sure it will continue throughout the season.

They have some great experience in Graeme Horne. He leads the pack really well and it was interesting that he only played for 25 minutes against Barrow.

He did his first spell and was brought off, but by the time he was due to go back on they had the game wrapped up, so obviously James Ford left him off in order to rest him for the game against us.

Ben Cockayne played his 350th game against Barrow and I’d like to congratulate him on that, especially when you see he won the Man-of-the-match award. He played outstandingly well and was a constant thorn in the Barrow side.

Both those players are experienced and are real threats, but they also have some quality players coming through as well.

Joe Batchelor will be back from St Helens and he is a constant threat, but I also like Jason Bass who they have recruited as well, so you have to give credit to York for looking outside the box and bringing in some quality players.

As for ourselves, whilst we were disappointed with the defeat at Sheffield it was just a loss of two points. If we had won, we would have gained the two points but, as it was, we lost and they got them.

It will be the same on Sunday and we should remember that it is a 27 round, long season and there will be some rollercoaster rides and lots of ups and downs during those 27 games.

Yes, it was disappointing last week and we didn’t play that well, but we feel we have identified the reasons for it and hopefully we can rectify that against York.

Last week our reserves had a very useful game against Hunslet. I was very pleased with it and we had several under-19s in there as well as the members of the squad who didn’t play at Sheffield.

It shows how valuable those games are as one of the players on duty, Matthew Storton, has forced his way into the 17-man squad for the game against York.

That’s the reason we have a reserve grade side. For players to keep playing and playing well enough to make us, as a coaching staff, think about including them in the first team.

Young Storton has been fortunate to earn that promotion and I just hope he takes his opportunity and keeps that first grade shirt.