BEATING Hunslet Hawks tomorrow could help York City Knights find the fifth element, reckons boss Gary Thornton.

Having initially set modest targets for his charges in the Kingstone Press Championship this season, following a campaign last year that brought just one win for the Huntington Stadium side, the Knights head coach has been hugely encouraged by the progress made in his short tenure so far.

Sitting in sixth place in the table, with four wins from ten games, ahead of tomorrow’s trip to the South Leeds Stadium to face a Hawks team four places and three points adrift of them, Thornton, pictured, admitted he had turned the pressure screw on his players as he looks to close the gap on the league’s top five teams.

“At the start of the season we were chasing a top eight spot, now we are targeting the top six,” he said. “We have got ourselves into that position and there is no reason we can’t stay there.

“I have put a bit of extra pressure on the lads. Let’s kick on. There is no reason why we can’t look at fifth spot then. We are not looking down but up.”He added: “If we have any ambitions to be in the chasing group then we have to pick off teams in and around us. Hunslet could quite easily swap places with us.

“We have got a bit of momentum going and it’s important to keep that up. This is a game where we are looking to do that. They are a very different proposition to last year – as we are. You have to take last year out of the equation and look at it on its merits. The link up with Leeds has benefited them and it’s two completely different teams and a different challenge.”

The Knights have yet to win away from home this season, and have lost twice to the league’s strugglers in Barrow and Keighley, but Thornton does not believe his team are suffering from travel sickness.

He explained: “People are making a lot of this and it shows the success we have already had. People are expecting us to pick up points away from home. We are doing as well as we can at home and we have got a couple of away bonus points. We don’t speak too much about it.”

What Thornton is looking for is for his side to get on the front foot. While pleased with come-from-behind successes against Toulouse and Dewsbury, he is aware of the mental toll having to fight back can take.

“We need to get off to a really good start this week,” he said. “We need to be a bit smarter and not take our foot off the gas. It’s about being a bit more professional rather than letting teams back into it.

“We have tended to come from behind and it does take its toll on you. It is draining. We have just got to be a little bit smarter.”

Skipper James Ford is included in the squad but Thornton will try to rest him if he can after the centre pulled up in training in midweek, while hooker Jack Lee will definitely be missing with a knee injury.

Any selection worries, however, are eased by the return of Danny Nicklas, now about to join the Knights on a permanent basis until the end of the campaign from Hull, while Simon Brown has recovered from a back complaint.

Knights squad: Carr, Morrison, Latus, Briscoe, Ford, Browne, Brown, Nicklas, Potter, Presley, Bell, Scott, Kent, Smith, Brining, Sullivan, Stenchion, Lyons, Pickles, Iley.