York Knights stick with relaxed mindset as Halifax Panthers look to take care of business

The Knights were way off the pace following a narrow defeat at Whitehaven in June but head into the final weekend just one point behind sixth-placed Halifax Panthers thanks to nine wins in 10 games.

Monday's thrilling win over top-six rivals Batley Bulldogs has set up the opportunity to steal the final play-off place with a win at Barrow Raiders, although they need a favour from relegation-threatened Swinton Lions in their clash with Halifax.

Henderson has encouraged York to stick with the relaxed mindset that has served them so well in recent months.

"We've not played with any pressure on us really since we lost away to Whitehaven," he said.

"I did build that week up. We had three games in seven days and in my head we had to win two out of those three to try keep any hope of a top-six finish alive.

"We didn't achieve that so our mindset shifted and we focused on trying to improve our performances to finish the season as strongly as we could to build a foundation for next year.

"We've just been taking it week by week and haven't got ahead of ourselves. We haven't even spoken about the play-offs – and it's not going to be any different this week. We want to deliver a performance at Barrow and hopefully earn a result.

"If the rugby gods are in our favour and a few things go our way, we can attack the next competition; if not, we can take some heart from a real positive final third of this season."

Halifax start the final round in the top six after benefiting from York's win over Batley, although Simon Grix’s side left it late in a tense 23-22 defeat of Keighley Cougars.

Grix has called on Fax to play with cool heads against Swinton.

“We’ve just got to do our bit,” he said. “We’ve said for a while now that we just need to win our games and that’s what we need to do on Sunday. We need the two points, whether it’s ugly or pretty. Everything else is irrelevant. It would be an easier, less stressful watch if we played half-smart and tidied our discipline up, though.”

Batley remain in the hunt for a play-off place but need to beat Newcastle Thunder and hope Halifax and York both fall flat, while Keighley are in a four-way scrap for survival ahead of their trip to London Broncos.