THE York game has been a long time coming for Elliot Minchella – in more ways than one.

The Bulls vice-skipper is keen to get the Sheffield Eagles defeat out of the system.

And what better way than by putting one over the side who are suddenly becoming their great rivals.

READ MORE: Bulls loss was reality check for Minchella

The two titanic tussles with the Knights last season proved there was nothing between the teams in League One.

But it was James Ford’s side who went on to celebrate the title, losing only once after the thrilling opening-day defeat by the Bulls at Bootham Crescent.

York had their revenge at Odsal by the same two-point margin in the summer – a score that Minchella would love to settle tomorrow.

He said: “They are always good games against York. They are another strong team who have started well, they ran Toronto close first week and have had two good wins since.

“They are going to be fired up again. It is a bit of a rivalry we’ve got with them because of the competition last year.

“They beat us at Odsal last time so that’s a bit more of an incentive for us to beat them.

“It was a big game back in July and they came away winners only just. I wouldn’t say we owe them one but we want to win every game and it would be good to stop them.

“But it’s going to be tough. It doesn’t get any easier in this league but we’ll be ready for York.”

With their wings clipped by the Eagles eight days ago, it has been an impatient camp waiting to right those wrongs of the Olympic Legacy Park.

“It’s good to have a bit longer to recover but it’s meant we’ve had to dwell on the defeat for an extra two days as well,” admitted Minchella.

“I don’t think we were getting ahead of ourselves before that game. But Sheffield certainly put us back in our place.

“The players within the camp weren’t thinking that because we’d won two from two we’re going to win the competition.

“Our feet are on the ground but maybe a few others were thinking like that.

“It just shows how tough the competition will be. There are some big teams in it and anybody can beat anyone else.

“When we were down to 12 men in the second half and then 11, we just couldn’t get out of our own half. They just had the ball all the time.

“Our scrambling defence has been good since John (Kear) came in last year. It’s something that he’s been really big on.

“But you can’t do it all day and eventually we broke. We just ran out of gas.

“Now we’ve got another big game to look forward to against a team that we know will be tough.”