Andrew Henderson’s side were dead and buried, but Jordan Gibson’s red card shortly after the hour proved the turning point as they ran in five tries in 11 minutes to seal the unlikeliest of victories in Manchester. Swinton held a commanding 22-point lead at the break, fashioned from an Andy Badrock double alongside tries from Jake Spedding and Jake Burns, with the Knights a shell of the side that had defeated Halifax Panthers seven days ago. But Gibson’s dismissal for a high tackle that knocked out Will Dagger opened the door for York to take the initiative, with interchange hooker Josh Daley spearheading the most dramatic of comebacks that saw Jesse Dee, Joe Brown and Franklin Pele also find the whitewash on an afternoon likely to live long in the memory.

Having secured a second win of the Betfred Championship season against the Panthers last weekend, Henderson made two changes to his 17 in the Knights’ search for back-to-back league wins for the first time this year. Hull FC loanee Charlie Severs was reinstated into the second row in place of the injured Tom Lineham, seeing Connor Bailey switch into the centres, whilst Dagger returned to the bench from a one-match suspension. Swinton themselves fielded a noticeably stronger line-up than had been thrashed 40-0 by the Knights on their home turf last season, with Dec Patton, Dan Abram and Dan Spencer-Tonks causing all sorts of trouble.

York had flown out of the blocks against Halifax last week, but it was as though nor.