IT might have been a season from hell off the field for York City Knights yet it so nearly delivered the promised land on it thanks to minor miracles from head coach James Ford and his players – only for play-off opponents Swinton to be the ones coming back from the dead.

The Knights were just 12 seconds away from the Kingstone Press League One play-off final when their semi-final hosts scored an equalising drop-goal to take the tie into extra time and then win it with a golden point.

The Lions then went on to beat Keighley in the final, also by a drop goal, to win a place back in the Championship and money-spinning matches against the likes of Leigh, Featherstone, Halifax and, following their defeat in ‘Million Pound Game’, fallen giants Bradford.

For York, another season down in rugby league’s forgotten tier.

However, while the campaign ended in agony for fans and tears aplenty in the changing room, such disappointment should not sully the pride and congratulation this group of Knights deserve for their achievements in ongoing adversity.

The troubled York community stadium saga, with all its politics and complication, and all the associated misinformation and rumour, not only left the club without a home or a training base after they were moved out of Huntington Stadium (where the new arena will be built) but also left some fans bickering among themselves at who was to blame – major shareholder John Guildford and City of York Council in the firing line after their public falling-out.

But, in stark contrast to all that, the togetherness in the changing rooms, on the training paddock (whichever one the club could borrow) and on the playing pitch (whichever one the club could borrow) made this squad a real band of brothers - not just the Dents or Smiths.

Aside the potential and actual ability in James Ford’s predominantly youthful squad, it was that togetherness that got the team to within 80 minutes and 12 seconds of promotion glory.

There would have been many reasons for irritation, annoyance and hissy fits in the camp from pre-season onwards, as the players trudged from one location to the next, lugging gear with them as they went, before having to play home games out of the city and then at amateur grounds. And all while the off-field carry-on carried on.

But instead of crying or complaining, they not only got on with it but also took pride in each other getting on with it.

That team spirit comes from the top, so take a bow, James Ford, for either instilling it or for getting a squad of players with such laudable attitudes in the first place.

Take a bow, too, for coming up with oft-amended training schedules and for dealing with the off-field situation with such professionalism, even if the good humour at particularly trying times belied what must have been dismay and anger.

Considering this was Ford’s maiden season as a rookie boss makes it all the more commendable. It is no surprise he made the shortlist for League One Coach of the Year.

A mention, too, for Ford’s backroom staff, from club legend Mick Ramsden to team manager Will Leatt and amiable teenage helper-outer George Leatt.

Rammo, of course, left in June to finally spend time with his family after more than two decades with his home-town club – though it’s probably fair to say the sorry off-field situation was a contributory factor in his decision. If sniping and argument wasn’t bad enough, the financial ramifications of homelessness meant the club had to fold the reserves team of which he was also coach.

The assistant-coach baton was quietly picked up, meanwhile, by Neil Hinchsliff – captain James Haynes’ father-in-law – while Mark Helme came in as conditioner for Jamie Bell, who went full-time with Castleford.

If the focus for some in and around the club or the stadium scheme became scoring points off the field, for those in the camp it was all about scoring them on it.

That came to the fore in a mid-season period when the team played some of the best, most expansive, free-flowing rugby seen in the city (or out of the city) for several years.

On which note, while it was no surprise attendances fell again given all the “off-field rubbish”, as Ford calls it, his team’s brand of rugby league deserved better, much better.

Such a point was made by none other than rugby league superstar Sam Tomkins, a spectator at the dramatic semi-final against Swinton.

Hopefully attendances will duly improve when the club finally get to play at York City’s Bootham Crescent ground next year – only 12 months later than planned, and some seven months after the club’s incoming directors signed agreement with the council to get back into the stadium project.

York Press: From left, Cllr Chris Steward, Neil Jennings, Dave Baldwin and Cllr Nigel Ayre.

(On which note, here’s hoping, this whole sorry scenario won’t return this time next year when the current agreement to play at Bootham Crescent ends with the new arena not yet ready. Oh, and here’s hoping the stadium deal is indeed financially viable.) It seems funny now that, at the start of the season, the club were grateful for being drawn away in the early rounds of the cups, believing it gave them a few more weeks to sort out contracts with the council before the summer months.

Of the first seven games, only one was at home – an iPro Sport Cup second-round defeat to Newcastle taking place at York RUFC.

Of those seven, five were won, the other defeat coming to a Keighley side with title aspirations. Not a bad start for Ford and co.

Still, the victories had come against League One’s expansion clubs and, when defeats followed at Swinton and Newcastle in May, it meant Ford’s team had not yet triumphed against any of League One’s big boys – ie the five that had come down from the Championship plus regular play-off candidates Oldham and the rejuvenated Tynesiders.

A Challenge Cup tie at Super League giant St Helens had been fun, especially when local lad Tyler Craig got over the whitewash for a deserved consolation.

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But big wins over minnows combined with struggles against play-off candidates brought suggestions this team were “flat-track bullies”.

Such a tag was one that Ford took exception too – as did his players.

They promptly beat Rochdale – in a game played at Featherstone Rovers – to begin a run of ten wins in 11 matches, including telling revenge victories over promotion hopefuls Swinton and Newcastle, both at Elmpark Way as the Knights made Heworth ARLC’s home, with its award-winning pitch, their venue for the rest of the season.

The tries flowed, too, as Ford’s men became the division’s biggest point scorers, only being usurped from the top of that particular tree late in the season by Swinton and Oldham. The latter - the team that had punctured York’s winning run - went on to top the table and finally secure promotion courtesy of victory over Keighley in the promotion final at the umpteenth time of trying.

In total over the season, the Knights hit the half-century of points in a match seven times, with the try-scoring led in no uncertain terms by hooker Kriss Brining.

Either side of a seven-match injury lay-off, the homegrown hooker bagged no fewer than 23 tries in 19 appearances - including four hat-tricks in the space of seven outings - the vast majority of them coming from dummy-half.

Opponents knew at some point he was going to make a beeline for the whitewash, but stopping him was another matter.

Next in the try-scoring chart, with 18, was Greg Minikin, Ford’s protege in the under-18s and U20s reserves who, as tipped by the head coach, has blossomed into a brilliant centre with a Super League future afoot at Castleford.

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Then, with 14, came second-row Ed Smith, yet another homegrown star, and a contender with Minikin for The Press Player of the Year award after he backed up his super season in 2014 with an even better one this year.

The next names in that try chart are Yorkies Pat Smith and Ben Dent, level with “outsider” Nev Morrison on 12, meaning five of the top six try-scorers for the Knights this year were all local lads.

That statistic is one for York fans to be proud of - albeit tinged with dismay that the production line may dry up given the reserve system is no more.

With the Knights by now probables for the play-offs, Ford tweaked the game-plan to get his team into “knockout football” mentality, at times curtailing the expansive stuff and instead playing for percentages and pressure.

Nevertheless, the drama levels in this period were rising.

The Knights beat Oxford despite having non-stop prop Jack Aldous harshly sent off after only six minutes, and they played two thrilling games against North Wales, won and lost by the identical scorelines of 30-28.

Last up were Barrow, who brought their own particular brand of rugby league to Elmpark Way, and duly had Anthony Bate sent off and two others sin-binned, only to go on to win a fractious game 18-16. The result was overshadowed by Bate heading into the terrace to remonstrate face-to-face with fans who had jeered him - with the Rugby Football League this week handing him a six-match ban, which some may say is lenient.

The Knights had already banked a play-off place but that defeat saw them slip from third to fourth in the table, meaning they missed out on a home tie in the semi-finals.

Still, in a year in which they’d been tipped to finish eighth in the new-look, much-improved League One - and with those predictions coming even before the off-field strife - fourth was no mean feat.

Yes, fans might argue fourth in League One is nothing to be celebrated for a club of York’s potential. But that would be to look too far beyond the circumstances that Ford and co, and perhaps the club as a whole, were forced to operate in.

Indeed, it could be argued fourth this year is a bigger achievement than first in last year’s League One, even if the ultimate aim of promotion was again missed.

The downside remains, however, that the club face another year in League One, and now with the additional concerns among some that the future move to the new stadium might only be viable in the financial surroundings of the Championship and above.

A downside for Ford, too, is that the pressure will now be on.

The brilliant Minikin, the hard-hitting Colton Roche and one or two others might be heading out, but, with a few additions to the squad and with a proper pre-season behind them this time, plus a training base and a place to call home, expectation levels will rise next term.