ENGLAND international Richie Mathers reckons York City Knights can expect to "hold their own" in LHF National League One this year.

The 22-year-old full-back captained the Leeds Rhinos side that beat the Knights 25-18 in yesterday's pre-season friendly.

And he reckoned he saw enough to suggest Mick Cook's men will do better than the previous NL2 champions, Keighley and Barrow, who both were relegated one year after they went up.

Said Mathers: "I think York have got all the bases - good half-backs, a big set of rough forwards - and they've got all the potential.

"Mick Cook (former Academy boss at Leeds) has obviously picked up a lot of things at Leeds Rhinos and he's trying to implement them with the Knights. I don't see why they can't hold their own in National League One."

Mathers admitted it was on his orders that the Rhinos went for a late drop goal to make sure of the win, a decision which brought disapproval from fans who wanted to see running rugby. But he defended it saying he did not want to suffer a third straight defeat to York following the two previous pre-season meetings.

"People might say it's only a friendly but to these kids it's important," he said, referring to the youngsters in the Leeds line-up.

"I wanted to win. I didn't want to come here as a captain and lose and I know these young kids were 100 per cent behind me. We've been beaten here twice and I didn't want it to happen this year.

"It was me who told Jordan Tansey to go for the drop goal," he said. "The crowd started booing but if York had scored again they could have drawn level and I wanted to win."

Mathers, in his return after wrist surgery at the end of last season, stayed on for the full 80 minutes - unlike the other Super League first-teamers on show - and said it was a good hit-out.

"It was a good chance to get a game and I was privileged to be captain," he said. "I was really proud to lead them and I think we did a good job.

"It was really tough. They had some physical lads and bashed us up a bit. In the second half I was probably the oldest (Leeds player) on the field at 22 but we stood up well. We were under the cosh in the second half but handled it well."

Mathers earmarked Leeds' former Knight, Ian Kirke, for praise, as did Graeme Hallas, the former York centre who is now Leeds' assistant-coach.

"I thought Ian Kirke played really well in the forwards and Shane Millard caused them all kinds of problems in the first half," said Mathers.

Hallas, who is also Under-21s boss at Headingley, said: "We're happy. It was pretty physical out there, and a game we needed. We lacked a lot of ball in the second half and the young kids stood up well. Ian Kirke especially stood out.

"York are a useful outfit. I think they will go pretty well in NL1. They certainly provided us with a pretty stern test."

Updated: 11:53 Monday, January 16, 2006