YORK City Knights boss Mick Cook is already relishing the prospect of LHF National League One rugby - and is not ruling out breaking into the top-six.

Cook led his team to the NL2 title this season and, player recruitment aside, has been able to put his feet up as the league's play-off programme hots up.

He realises his second season in charge will naturally be a much tougher assignment but, while averse as ever to making bold predictions, he reckons it is not implausible that this time next year his side will be involved in the knockout phases of the NL1 promotion battle.

"I'm looking forward to the challenge of a different division," he told the Evening Press. "If we get the players that we are looking for it will be a good challenge.

"I don't think it's a huge challenge. We want to be competitive and if we can squeeze into a top-six place next year that will be our standing."

The Knights' two predecessors as NL2 champions, Keighley and Barrow, have both come straight back down after one season, but Cook cited Halifax as an example of a side who can make the step up in class. Fax finished second-bottom of that division last year and only avoided relegation by scraping victory over York in the NL1 Qualifying Play-off final, but this season rose to fourth and hammered Doncaster in last week's elimination play-off.

"If you look at Halifax, they nearly got relegated last year and they have obviously improved because this time they are in the play-offs at the other end," he said.

"It can be done if you get the right people and the right attitude in place. We are looking forward to it."

Cook has said, however, that if his side are to be at all successful, they will need to start matches better than they have on several occasions this season when famed fight-backs brought them the spoils.

"We didn't really focus on how we started games and I don't think we will get away with the big comebacks next year because the quality of the opposition is going to be higher," he reasoned. "We need to make sure we get into games early doors so we are not having to come from behind.

"Some of the teams - Widnes, Castleford, Rochdale, Halifax, Hull KR - are all National League One established teams and they have got good squads. A few of them will be fighting for a Super League place so it's going to be quite an intense competition."

Updated: 08:54 Saturday, September 24, 2005