Kingstone Press League 1 Preview: York City Knights v Coventry Bears

Correspondent

Coventry Bears notched up their second home win of the season against Hemel Stags in emphatic style.

Coach Tom Tsang said: “When the fixtures came out we aimed for three wins out of the first five games and those games against Oxford and Hemel were ones that we wanted to target.

“We went into the Hemel game pretty confident but there was no way we could predict that we would end up with that score line.

“We’d been saying for a long time that our lads need a dry track and I put it back on them saying ‘go out and prove it’. They did so, I can’t really say much more than that really, it was a real good team performance.

“I’ve watched a bit of video on York. They play up tempo with quite fast rucks and are not afraid to throw the ball around in their own half.

“That’s similar to the way we play – we’re not the biggest team and I don’t think York are so we have to play at bit more expansively.

“It should be an exciting game but if we can play anywhere near the way we did, especially in the second half, against Hemel then we won’t be too far away.

“Obviously the travelling will have an impact but our lads are in good spirits and we’re going there feeling pretty confident.”

Half-back Billy Sheen, who scored a hat-trick against Hemel, picked up a shoulder injury but is hoping to make the trip.