JAMES FORD has had nothing but praise for his York City Knights players so far this year and there is no sign yet of that changing - despite a second heavy reverse in their second outing of pre-season.

Their 62-6 defeat to Featherstone in Pontefract today followed the 62-0 loss to Hull last time out – a total of 21 tries conceded to one scored.

If it isn’t cause for alarm given the calibre of opposition, it is cause for some concern, especially with the way some of the points today were shipped in.

However, as rookie head coach Ford pointed out, perspective is needed – and not just because the stadium saga in York has meant his squad have had to contend with disruption and uncertainty aplenty for the last couple of months.

For a start, Hull fielded a star-studded Super League side, and Rovers a team hopeful of pushing for promotion to the top tier.

York, on the other hand, are in League One and on top of that were missing several first-teamers, virtually half the team Ford could be expected to start the season with.

Indeed, of their nine substitutes today, six – Stephen Batty, Scott Talbot, Brad Nicholson, Jordan Potter, Liam Richmond and James Glover - are yet to taste competitive first-grade rugby, and Adam Dent, a relative old head, has only two appearances. For the last 20 minutes, York had a fair chunk of their young reserves on the field.

Furthermore, Hull and Featherstone are much further down the pre-season road with their respective league campaigns kicking off more than a month ahead of York’s. This was Featherstone’s final friendly, after defeats to Wakefield, Castleford and Batley, and boss Andy Hay said it was their best display yet.

However, there is a however.

Of the 11 tries shipped in today, more than half were down to soft tackling as much as good attacking. Ford alluded to “one-on-one misses”. Sometimes there were two-on-one misses too.

Forget Super League or the Championship, such powderpuff efforts will be costly in League One.

Scoring points is probably less of a worry.

They are unlikely to come up against many defences of such assuredness, while creative players will come back into the side. Fluidity in a new-look team also takes time, especially with players swapping and changing throughout.

On that note, Ford’s claim that his players had the wherewithal to switch positions during matches was put to the test in more ways than one.

Ben Dent, for example, was named at full-back and James Haynes at stand-off but those positions were part of the attacking formation only, with Dent going onto the wing and Haynes to full-back when in defence - smart transitions required whenever possession switched hands.

Ford’s charges did manage to build pressure at times, forcing a couple of dropouts and being held over the line in addition to Austin Bell’s touchdown.

There were also some good defensive efforts, even if they often went to waste.

Ben Blackmore had already given Rovers a third-minute lead when threequarter Tyler Craig – one of York's better performers along with second-row Pete Aspinall – tracked back to superbly deny Nathan Chappell .

That second try didn’t take long to come, though, as Rovers made use of the big rugby union in-goal areas – the match was at Pontefract RUFC – for Will Sharp to touch down Sam Irwin’s grubber.

A poor pass from dummy-half by Jack Iley then proved costly as Paul Sykes cantered in untouched after a basic runaround. Former Bradford and Wakefield half-back Sykes ended with seven goals too.

Tim Spears and Blackmore also ran in team tries before York got on the scoreboard, on the back of consecutive penalties.

Ryan Mallinder was held up, but prop Austin Bell found a gap in broken play on the last tackle, Haynes converting.

The 28-6 interval scoreline was added to by Blackmore, Mason Tonks, Will Milner and full-back Kyran Johnson by the hour mark.

In a rare riposte, York won a dropout and Nicholson – younger brother of Rovers’ former York favourite, Matty – was held up.

But Featherstone intercepted and, although Adam Dent superbly caught Matty Teasdale, Jack Ormondroyd took the scoring pass, with Jack Bussey converting both this and Blackmore’s late fourth.

Featherstone: Johnson, Sharp, Chappell, Minns, Blackmore, Sykes, Baldwinson, Teasdale, Bussey, Lockwood, Cording, Spears. Subs (all used): Milner, M Tonks, Hardman, Wood, James, Ormondroyd, Harper, M Nicholson.

Tries: Blackmore 3, 31, 46, 76; Sharp 19; Sykes 25; Spears 28; M Tonks 52; Milner 57; Johnson 60; Ormondroyd 68.

Goals: Sykes 7/8; Hardman 0/1; Bussey 2/2.

Knights: B Dent, Morrison, Hanson, Cunningham, Craig, Haynes, P Smith, Applegarth, Iley, Aldous, Mallinder, Aspinall, Roche. Subs (all used): Batty, Talbot, B Nicholson, Bell, Joynt, Potter, Richmond, Glover, A Dent.

Tries: Bell 38

Goals: Haynes 1/1

Referee: Tom Grant (Leeds).

Attendance: 650.