BRADFORD will hope to avoid the wooden spoon and end their season on a high at fellow promoted side York when they kick off the final round of regular season action on Thursday night.
The LNER Community Stadium though hasn’t been happy hunting ground of late for the injury-hit Bulls, who lost there last season in both the Championship and 1895 Cup semi-final.
But Kurt Haggerty’s side won the reverse fixture at Bartercard Odsal in June, and head to North Yorkshire on a high after their victory over Castleford – which ended a run of seven straight defeats.
They have also been boosted by the return of Esan Marsters, who had been expected to miss the rest of the season after suffering an Achilles injury in April, to their 20-man squad.
He is the only change for the Bulls, replacing Loghan Lewis, who misses out with a knee injury.
York meanwhile have named an unchanged 21-man squad following their comeback win at Catalans on Saturday.
Mark Applegarth hinted he would name the same matchday squad from Perpignan, with veteran winger Ben Jones-Bishop set to make his 400th career appearance.
A win for the Knights would solidify a tenth-place finish in their maiden Super League campaign, whilst Bradford eagerly await the results of the matches between Huddersfield and Castleford and Leeds and Hull FC to see whether they will be kept off the bottom.
SQUADS
Knights: 1 Toa Mata’afa, 2 Ben Jones-Bishop, 4 Sam Wood, 5 Scott Galeano, 6 Ata Hingano, 7 Liam Harris, 8 Jack Martin, 9 Paul McShane, 10 Paul Vaughan, 12 Jesse Dee, 13 Jordan Thompson, 14 Denive Balmforth, 15 Xavier Va’a, 16 Justin Sangaré, 20 Oli Field, 23 Jon Bennison, 26 Nikau Williams, 27 Matty Foster, 37 Cody Hunter, 46 David Nofoaluma, 50 Thomas Doyle
Bulls: 1 Caleb Aekins, 2 Jayden Okunbor, 3 Esan Marsters, 4 Waqa Blake, 8 Ryan Sutton, 9 Andy Ackers, 11 Dan Russell, 13 Joe Mellor, 16 Ebon Scurr, 19 Will Gardiner, 22 Luke Hooley, 23 Connor Wynne, 25 Eliot Peposhi, 27 Alfie Leake, 28 Jamie Gill, 30 Leon Ruan, 32 Chris Atkin, 34 Phoenix Steinwede, 36 Harvey Ward, 38 Riley Dean
Outs: 10 Loghan Lewis
Ins: 3 Esan Marsters
Referee: Chris Kendall