Ratcliffe ready to take on runaway leaders York

Scarborough were well beaten by a 56-7 scoreline when they travelled to Clifton Park in September, and the league leaders have won all 14 of their games to date.

But the men from Silver Royd have also enjoyed a superb season to date under new coach Simon Smith and sit second in the table, with 11 wins from 14 outings.

Ratcliffe said: “We always believe in any game that we can get the win.

“We never go into any game without that belief that we can win.

“The game at York was very disappointing, they’re an extremely well-organised side who seem to know their game-plan inside out.”

Ratcliffe is hoping the hosts will rise to the big occasion come Saturday.

He added: “It’s a big game and we seem to turn up for the big occasions, it’s the games against the teams lower in the league that we tend to let ourselves down in.

“Hopefully we can get that extra 5 or 10% from having a big crowd behind us at Silver Royd and give it a good go.

“Having said that, we have 12 or 13 big games after the York game that we need to do well in if we are to stay up at the top end of the table and possibly get promoted.”

Ratcliffe believes this Scarborough side has the best chance of finally getting out of Yorkshire One since he arrived at the club.

“The guys are really buying into it this year, and I’d say this is the best chance we’ve had of going up since I came to Scarborough,” added Ratcliffe.

“It has taken a few years for us to get there with our patterns of play, it hasn’t just happened this year, but we are getting there now and it’s paying off for us.”