RIVALS be warned. Stand-off Scott Rhodes reckons his half-back partnership with Danny Brough can only get better and better.

The York City Knights duo have shone brightly in the team's rise to joint-top of National League Two, with Rhodes the reigning Knights Player of the Month and Brough booting his way to the top of the division's points-scoring charts.

But Rhodes believes more is to come. "Our partnership can only improve," he told the Evening Press on the eve of tomorrow's NL2 clash with Swinton.

"We're both young guys and as long as we keep working hard and playing together it will get better.

"I've said it before, I'm looking for consistency in my own game and I've had a chat with (coach) Richard Agar and he's happy with my form at the moment, which is a boost."

Rhodes also had praise for the pack which supplies Brough and he with plentiful ammunition.

"That's been a difference this year for us," he said. "Our back row are excellent and the props are going well and we've got people like Mark Cain coming off the bench and making a difference. Lee Jackson is controlling things around the ruck and everything is going really well.

"The players coming off me out wide are going really well also and as long as they all keep going forward I'm sure we'll do well."

He added: "We've been playing well. Sometimes we lack a bit of concentration, for example in the second half against Gateshead last week. If we'd played as well as we did in the first half we could have put 80 points on them. But I'm really happy with the way it's been going."

Coach Agar was not complaining either - but he too reckoned the Knights' best was yet to come. "I'm generally happy with us," he said.

"We were far from happy with the second half last week but it did not cost us and you could start being a bit too picky.

"Our form for the month before then was pretty good, we've had some notable wins, and I'm reasonably happy with where we're at.

"We lost one game (against Hunslet Hawks on April 18) but we feel we're going alright, although there's always room for improvement. We're still waiting to put a complete 80 minutes together."

Agar will decide his line-up to face Swinton from the same 17 on duty last week, minus the departed Mark Stewart, plus Scott Walker, Mick Ramsden and Aaron Wood.

Winger Walker will play if top try-scorer Alex Godfrey, who has been struggling with illness, fails a late fitness test, while big-hitting forward John Smith will drop to the bench to take Stewart's shirt with either Wood or Ramsden on from the start.

"Tom Andrews (second-row) would have come into contention but pulled a hamstring again in training," said Agar.

"Alex has had tonsilitis and came off for a big chunk last week as he did not feel too good, and he's been struggling a bit so he'll have a check."

TOMORROW'S TEAMS

Knights: from Graham, Godfrey, Langley, Callaghan, Buchanan, Rhodes, Brough, Sozi, Jackson, Wilson, Friend, Ramsden, Ball, Elston, J Smith, Cain, Forsyth, Wood, Walker.

Swinton (probable): English, Thorpe, Bolton, Maye, Roach, Patel, Ayres, Loughlin, Cannon, Cushion, Stazicker, K Smith, Hodson. Subs: Irwin, Hodson, Wingfield, Liku.

Updated: 10:58 Saturday, May 29, 2004