York City Knights will look to cause an upset when they face Super League side Catalans Dragons in the Challenge Cup on Sunday

Ladbrokes Challenge Cup Venue: Bootham Crescent Date: Sunday, 22 April Kick-off: 15:00 BST Coverage: Watch live on the BBC Sport website

Rugby league minnows York City Knights have promised "a day to remember" when they take on Super League strugglers Catalans Dragons in the Challenge Cup.

Whatever the result of Sunday's game, the Knights' chairman and owner John Flatman believes it will be an occasion to showcase the club's big ambitions.

The fifth-round tie has all the ingredients for a giant-killing. York play two tiers below the French side, but are on a run of five successive league wins, while top-flight Catalans are struggling for form and confidence having won only two of their 11 Super League games this year.

But Flatman said winning was still a long shot: "We're second favourites in a two-horse race, but we're going to have an absolute crack at it.

"Everyone is going to give 100% on the field, and off it we're going to make it a day to remember.

"We've got a tremendous amount of activity going on around the city and it's been reflected in the awareness and the buzz around this fixture."

York's fortunes have been on the up since a consortium led by Flatman took control at the end of 2016.

They drew a bumper crowd, well over 4,000, for a league match against Bradford earlier this season - a rarity for third-tier rugby league - and they've got their sights set on greater things.

The club has a plan to win promotion into the Championship within three years and they are being tipped as a future Super League side. Currently joint-leaders of League One with Doncaster and Bradford Bulls, they hope to still be in contention for promotion from League 1 come the end of the season.

"We've got a city in York that is a brand in the UK that people like. It's the second most visited city for tourists in the UK after London," said Flatman. "It's also got 250,000 people within a 20-minute drive. It's got a demographic like no other in rugby league.

"And we celebrate 150 years of the first rugby game being played in York later this year. So we've got heritage," he added.

"This is a city that the UK is proud of - we want to be a club that rugby league can be proud of."

York made the semi-finals of the Challenge Cup in 1984, eventually losing 14-8 to Wigan at Elland Road in Leeds.

And while they're not predicting anything like that kind of cup run this year, Flatman believes its impossible to overestimate the effect of playing in the world's oldest rugby league knockout competition.

"The Challenge Cup now is very different to the Challenge Cup back then. But the value for clubs at our level is the awareness it can generate," said Flatman.

"Catalans, to the York public, is interesting and different. We're just so excited. We're playing Super League and it's got an international flavour.

"We will have had the actual Challenge Cup for 10 days by Sunday. It's been to schools, to sponsors, to hospitals. It will have done hundreds of miles across and around our city and region.

"Its a wonderful trophy and a wonderful tournament. It does absolutely amazing things for clubs like us.

"The history, the heritage and stories that it can bring to today's kids and their parents is fantastic and long may it continue."

You can listen to more about York's big plans for the future in next Monday's BBC 5 Live Rugby League podcast. You can also listen to this week's podcast here.