YORK City Knights RL Club are being backed for promotion by their new sponsors.

Chris Bradley, the head of operations at Bartercard York, believes Knights can progress from National League Two and that is one of the main reasons his company have agreed a three-year deal with the forward-thinking club.

Knights clinched a play-off place in their first season and Bradley believes the club and Bartercard, the world's largest bartering exchange, will both be big players in York's future.

He said: "I think there's a real buzz about the club at the moment. There's a brilliant atmosphere and I think promotion is well within their sights. We are hoping to help them achieve that."

Life-long York fan Bradley played amateur rugby himself at school in Fulford and later for Fulfordgate and Southlands in the Yorkshire and York and District Leagues under managers Alan Smith and Derek Quinn.

He started as a winger and later became a scrum-half before giving up playing in his mid-20s to concentrate on business commitments.

Updated: 10:08 Saturday, October 11, 2003