York Knights head coach aims for Challenge Cup progress

The Knights narrowly defeated London in the league 30-28 but now meet London again in the Betfred Challenge Cup, with the winner securing a place in the quarter-finals.

York will reach the quarter-finals for the first time since 2004 if they beat London, a competition Henderson hopes to advance to.

“I hope it’s not as close as the last game because that was a real thrill that lasted until the end!” Henderson laughed.

“I hope we’re in a better position this week. But it’s the Challenge Cup again and anything can happen. London are a very good team and we saw that. They are back to full strength now and we saw that a few weeks ago.

“They have some really good players and some dangerous players, so defense has to be our focus this week.

“We need to be better defensively and the reality is we’ve conceded 50 points in two games, which isn’t good enough.

“It’s not good enough by our standards and it’s not good enough to win games. We have to make sure we’re getting better because we’re not going to get away with it as the weeks go by.

“That’s why we have to play defensively against a really good side from London this week.

“That would be great. We try to do our best in every game, win every game and go as far as we can in every competition we enter.”

“I am really happy that we are still alive in all three competitions. We’ve clinched a top-six win in the Championship and are in the last 16 of the Challenge Cup with a great chance of progressing to the Quarters.

“Hopefully we can achieve a big Super League draw here in York so we can present the Ruby of the Super League to the wider York public.

“We’re still alive in the 1895 Cup later in the league up to the semi-finals. There’s a lot to look forward to and a lot to play for, but our focus this week is the Challenge Cup and hoping to deliver that much-needed performance boost if we want to reach the quarter-finals, which would be great for the club.

“We had pretty good support in the last few rounds of the Challenge Cup.

“I think some of the initiatives the club is doing and the incentives they are offering with the discounted tickets are certainly helpful. They encourage people to come and see the whole thing.

“Hopefully we’ll have a decent crowd again singing loud and proud and giving us a lot of positive energy from the sidelines to help get the team across the finish line.”

Henderson also confirmed Jesse Dee is likely to return as the club await results on Sunday’s 26-22 loss to Newcastle Thunder.

“Jesse Dee is doing really, really well. We hope he passes his final week of testing and is available for selection.

“We took a few hits over the weekend so we need to assess those more tonight.

“We did a little investigation yesterday, so we need to investigate again tonight and make some decisions based on that information.”