Banned coach is back in charge at York City Knights

James Ratcliffe has been coach of the Knights since July 2009

York City Knights coach James Ratcliffe has returned to the club after serving a two month suspension from the game.

The Rugby Football League imposed the ban after finding him guilty of verbally abusing a member of the public and bringing the game into disrepute.

Ratcliffe told BBC Radio York he was looking forward to getting back to the club and resuming his role.

"It's something that I've been involved with for 25 years so to take it away for two months hasn't been easy.

Assistant coaches Chris Thorman and Mick Ramsden have been in charge since Ratcliffe was suspended in the week before the opening game of the season.

I think the transition will probably take a couple of weeks, get people back up to speed of how we want to put things into place and hopefully we'll see the results on the park

James Ratcliffe

Ratcliffe said they have kept him up to date with how things have been going, and he did not foresee any problems coming back to training.

"We've built a relationship up since Chris came and I knew Mick from the past two seasons I've been here," he said.

"So I've been kept abreast of what's been happening. I've managed to get to every game as a supporter so I've seen what's happening on the field.

"I think the transition will probably take a couple of weeks. When people are back up to speed how we want to put things into place, hopefully we'll see the results on the park."

Ratcliffe returns to the club with the Knights top of Championship One, in the quarter-finals of the Northern Rail Cup and through to the fourth round of the Challenge Cup.

However Ratcliffe said the team can still get better.

"There's certainly things we can improve on.

"We are top of the league, we're in both cup competitions, and as Mick and myself and Chris have all said, we've probably only played about 40 minutes of rugby since we started the season so we're not in a bad position really.

"Lots of improvements can be made - just little things.

"The players have been sent a letter by myself of the things that's expected of them over the next two to three weeks and I'm sure they'll come to the front."