REWIND to early April 2017 and York City Knights are travelling back north after a humiliating 35-28 defeat at Oxford.

The expansion club had won just one league game in the previous season and would go on to pick up just two more regular season victories before folding at the end of that year.

Oxford though battled back from thrice trailing by 10 points to beat promotion-chasing York.

“Afterwards I was just thinking, ‘What is going on here?’ For us as a club, in terms of the teams that we wanted to work towards beating, we shouldn’t have lost to Oxford, no disrespect to them.

“That was a serious re-thinking point for some of the players.”

Those are the words of York prop Ronan Dixon, who came on as an interchange that day, and could have hardly foreseen the transformation in the fortunes that would lie ahead for both himself and the club.

York would ultimately miss out on promotion that season but won the Betfred League One title the following year and have since secured Betfred Championship play-off finishes in two of the subsequent three seasons, while also reaching the Wembley Stadium-held AB Sundecks 1895 Cup for the first time last year.

Dixon has been a constant cog in a period of unprecedented success for James Ford’s side, who have gone from the brink of closure in 2016 under former chairman John Guildford to battling for a maiden spot in Betfred Super League.

The front-rower has provided consistency in the pack throughout that spell and, tomorrow night (7pm), is set to make his 100th appearance for the club at Newcastle Thunder.

“It’s something that I’m really excited about,” Dixon said. “It’s something that’s been in the corner of my eye for a while, getting 100 appearances for a big club like York.

“I’ve loved my time here at York over these past six years and I feel like I’ve been able to kick on as a player.

“And, at 25-years-old, to have played 100 games for one club, I think that’s quite a big achievement and it’s something that I’ll be really proud of.”

Although he began his youth career with Wakefield Trinity, Dixon is a one-club man at professional level, having only ever represented York.

“For me, the biggest change was that transition period, coming out of an Academy set-up and coming to York (in 2017), who were in transition themselves, having just come out of almost going into administration,” he recalled.

“We’ve rebuilt from there and I’ve been fortunate enough to be part of that journey.

“Not a lot has changed in terms of the coaching and the type of personnel that Fordy wants.

“He’s always drilling into players his philosophy of the game, the way he wants us to play and how we should be acting as players.”

While Dixon will no doubt enjoy his personal milestone, the primary focus is on York building on the positive signs shown in last week’s 20-12 win over Sheffield Eagles at Newcastle, their penultimate regular season match before the play-offs begin later this month.

“We’re looking to build some confidence in these next two weeks before the play-offs and roll into them with a real buzz,” Dixon added.

“The teams in those play-offs are there because they’ve been consistent and been quality all year. Anyone of those six sides could reach the final.”