JAMES FORD insists that York City Knights will not be "overawed" when they travel to Betfred Championship leaders Leigh Centurions on Sunday (3pm).

York are looking to bounce back from Monday night's 20-16 defeat to Bradford Bulls and re-ignite their season ahead of the play-offs at the Leigh Sports Village.

Leigh have won 21 of their 22 league matches so far this year and have not lost at home in a regular season Championship match since 2019.

The reigning AB Sundecks 1895 Cup champions are hot favourites for an immediate return to the Betfred Super League having splashed the cash on a vastly-talented playing squad full of top-flight experience.

When asked if Leigh are the best side he has ever seen in the second tier, Knights head coach Ford replied: “Yeah, I would say so. I think back to other sides that have been as dominant as Leigh, like Toronto (Wolfpack) and Toulouse (Olympique).

"I think Leigh are probably in front of them, but it doesn’t mean they’re unbeatable.

"What teams will be thinking about is, you’ve got to beat them once and you’ve got to do it at the right time.

"We have got an awful lot of respect for Leigh, I think how they play is the right way to play.

"They’ve got some tremendous players, some who have played in the NRL and still could. Some have played in the Super League and could definitely still be playing there.

"It’s a quality squad, but we’re not overawed and we’ll be going there looking to demonstrate some improvements in the areas where we know we need to improve.”

York have lost five of their last seven matches and head for Greater Manchester as rank outsiders.

Ford said: “I think we’re the underdogs when we play a number of teams in this competition and we try to play what we feel is the right way to win games at the right end of the season.

"At the minute we’re not quite getting that right, and we’re not quite getting it to the levels we’re capable of.

"But if we, for example, played a League One team, we wouldn’t change too much.

"We wouldn’t throw the ball over our heads and start chipping it over in our own 20, because I don’t believe that’s how you win consistently.”

On Leigh's individual threats, the boss continued: “They’re strong across the board.

"Blake Ferguson and Josh Charley are hard to handle and can hurt you if you kick loosely.

"I think the system they implement, how they press in the middle, their shape and ball movement, presents a really difficult challenge for sides and one that, evidently, has been too much for every Championship team up to now apart from in round one.

"Edwin Ipape comes off the interchange and he’s as explosive and dangerous as anything I’ve seen in this country as an impact nine.

"They’ve got threats everywhere. They’ve just signed Lachlan Lam too (from Sydney Roosters), who was playing in the NRL last year. He looks the business.”