JESSE Dee believes that the togetherness of the York Knights squad can help them in their bid to wobble Betfred Super League giants Hull KR this evening.

After the Knights cruised to a 72-12 victory over Keighley Cougars in the Betfred Challenge Cup round two on Sunday, Dee and his York teammates booked their place in the third round for a home match against Hull KR.

Hull KR enjoyed an incredible 2024 Super League season when reaching the Grand Final, the semi-final of the Challenge Cup and finishing second in the normal season.

Dee acknowledged the threat in which Hull KR pose to York, and is relishing a record-breaking crowd for the Knights at the LNER Community Stadium, with the spirit of the squad potentially being a factor in the contest.

“I think there’s a good heap of young boys, and they are just going to get better from the start of the year to the end of the year,” Dee detailed.

“I think you’ll see a massive shift, they’ve just got the get reps in and get among the experience boys.

“I think that they will go from strength to strength, which will be good.

RECOMMENDED READING:

• Knights Chairman Clint Goodchild excites at potential record-breaking crowd vs KR

• Kicking game important for Knights with Hull KR match on the horizon

• Knights on course to break attendance record against Hull KR

“It’s a good mix of old boys and younger boys, and we’ve been around each other for a couple of years now as a group.

“When the group is around each other for a couple of years, we really do get a good bond.

“It’s massive, it could be the difference towards the end of the year will all of the boys sticking together.

“The coaching staff and Clint [Goodchild, York RLFC Chairman] are really good at getting everyone together, so that’s good.

“It’s very exciting, it’s good for the club and it’s good for the community.

“That’s where we want to play, obviously the plan for York is for us to go to the Super League, and that’s where they [the fans] want to be at. It’s a good thing.

“The boys really like playing at home, it’s a good stadium and a good set-up, and the fans are really good.

“We need to fill out the stadium, hopefully for things in the future too.

“I remember when Bradford beat Leeds and they were in the Championship, so just little stuff like that. It can be done.

“We’ll just have to take our chances, we probably won’t get many, but we’ll have to take them.”

It’s a second meeting between the Knights and Hull KR in 2025, after the two teams played in the Amsterdam challenge less than two weeks ago.

York were victorious in the Netherlands, but Dee doesn’t believe they can take too much from that match into this next meeting, with the stakes being much higher in the Challenge Cup.

“We probably don’t take much from that first hit out really, because they will be a completely different team.

“We’ll probably be a completely different team because that was our first blowout, so it’ll just be good to keep building some combinations and go from there.

“We maybe got a bit of confidence from the Keighley game, but I think it’s probably gone up a fair bit of a level against KR.

“We’ll just do our own thing, concentrate on ourselves and go have a crack.

“There was a fair bit of excitement, I think that the boys were just excited to get off of that Keighley field and get into the LNER.

“I’m excited to test myself and push myself to the limits, it’s exciting.”

To get to this stage, York have so far had to defeat Betfred League One promotion-hopefuls Keighley in the second round, in an emphatic performance in West Yorkshire.

Dee was also able to register two tries in the win, but heaped credit onto the performance of his teammate Ata Hingano, who played a large part in the Knights’ progression.

Dee said on the previous round: “It was a real professional performance from the boys.

“We kind of got down there and got the job done, we got a good win against a good Keighley team. It was impressive.

“It was more about the boys, it was good to get some tries but I think I can thank Ata for that one! He’s easy to play with, that’s for sure.

“Ata’s a class player, he’s played for his country and he’s played at a top level too.

“We’re very lucky to have him here at York, and I think he’ll have a big say come Friday.

“We kind of see what the defence is doing and we gauge what the defence is doing, we practice them kind of out balls, in balls and whatnot.

“Me and Ata have been playing together for a while so we’ve got a good understanding of each other, which is good.

“It’s very important, just understanding what players do and their tendencies, some habits they have.

“It is very important, and it’s good to have the same core group as last year.”