York City Knights v Batley Bulldogs: Batley down to bare bones for Knights trip

Bulldogs’ three-match winning run in the Betfred Championship ended when they lost 36-16 to Leigh Centurions six days ago.

But Diskin described that as Leigh’s best performance of the season and insisted: “We didn’t play badly last week.

“A bit fatigue got us and we conceded a couple of soft tries which made the scoreline worse than it should have been, but the boys had a real dig and I was proud of their efforts.”

York are three places and six points ahead of Batley in the table.

Batley are “down to the bare bones” without suspended duo Wayne Reittie and Jack Downs and Diskin warned: “They will be full of confidence, they’ve picked up some quality results.

“We are up against it, but we are going there confident.

“We played well against them in the [pre-season] Yorkshire Cup.

“We dropped off after that, but we’ve shown glimpses of getting back to that sort of quality.”

Reittie received a one-match suspension for his Good Friday red card against Dewsbury Rams, but would not have played tomorrow due to a groin tear.

Downs is beginning a three-match ban.