BY PETER SMITH
When Wigan were relegated for the – so far – only time in their history 45 years ago, they bounced back at the first attempt. But not as second-tier champions.
Four teams were promoted at the end of the 1980-81 season and the Cherry and Whites had to settle for runners-up spot, three points behind a club who haven’t enjoyed quite so much success in the five decades since.
Until this year, the campaign in which York bettered Wigan was their only experience of topping the second division table.
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Relegated the following year, they returned to the Championship in 1985-86 for another single-season stint and have been languishing outside the top division ever since.
Until, that is, October 17, 2025.
Next term the now-York Knights will again be competing as equals with the likes of Wigan, Leeds Rhinos and St Helens. Though they were promoted by committee – chosen, along with Toulouse Olympique to expand Super League from 12 to 14 clubs – it would be hard to argue they don’t deserve it.
Under coach Mark Applegarth, the North Yorkshire side had a top-point advantage over second-placed Toulouse on the final table, winning 20 of their 24 league games, as well as the 1895 Cup. Hull KR beat them in the Challenge Cup en-route to achieving a domestic clean sweep of trophies.
The French side’s Grand Final victory denied York their own treble and they missed out on a place in the top-12 on club grading, but an ‘independent panel’ unanimously backed them to take the step up next year.
It is the culmination of a remarkable rise by Knights, a phoenix club who played their first game in 2003 after the original version, known as York Wasps, went out of business midway through the previous season.
At the time, they had been playing home games, at the drab Huntington Stadium, in front of crowds in the low hundreds. For sports fans in York, it proved a case of not appreciating what they had until it was gone.
Plans for a new side were met with a wave of enthusiasm and, generally, the good times have rolled since York’s return to the professional ranks.
Promoted three times before this year, Knights have also appeared twice at Wembley in the lower division cup competition, but it hasn’t all been plain sailing.
A decade ago York had a season playing out of the nearby Heworth amateur club. In 2017 they were hours away from going out of business before a takeover by Jon Flatman, previously on the board at Wakefield Trinity, saved the day.
Huntington Stadium and Bootham Crescent, which was shared with York City FC, are long gone, and the Knights are now based at the impressive LNER Community Stadium and since Aussie Clint Goodchild became owner, in 2022, Super League has been a clear and obvious target.
Nobody, from Goodchild and Applegarth down is pretending it will be easy. While the top 12 clubs on grading will receive full central funding next year, Toulouse and York, in 13th and 14th place, will receive half measures. That makes an already daunting challenge even tougher, but Goodchild regards any central distribution as a bonus.
Speaking on the day promotion was confirmed, he stressed: “I’m thankful to be getting 50 per cent funding because we budgeted for zero. We have an additional £650,000 now.”
Up to press, York’s recruitment has probably been the most impressive of the promoted sides. It is a rugby league city, boasting two teams in the community game’s flagship National Conference and certainly an attractive day out for opposition fans.
Knights’ challenge is now to find enough home supporters to sustain a top-flight club.
Their 2025 average was a shade below 3,000 and Goodchild’s aim is to convert some of the 2,000 with a York postcode who are currently on the database of rivals Hull KR, Castleford, Leeds, Wakefield and Hull FC.
For his part, Applegarth knows better than most the challenges of competing in Super League on fewer resources than rival clubs. He spent the 2023 season in charge of cash-strapped Wakefield; their campaign ended in relegation and when a new owner injected finances to improve the squad, Applegarth was shown the door.
One of the game’s genuine nice guys, he will have much goodwill – as well as Goodchild – behind him next year, having done an incredible job since moving into Knights’ hot seat midway through 2024.
Applegarth insisted: “I’m proud and privileged to be coaching York in Super League.
“It’s the vision that brought me to the club in the first place. Once I met with Clint he had a burning desire to get York back in and be competing.
“We’re happy and we’re privileged we’re there, but we don’t just want to go and make the numbers up. It’s not going to be a 12 month journey; if you look at teams like Hull KR and where they’ve come from, there’s a blueprint.”
Wakefield are on the way to establishing themselves and why not York?