YORK City Knights boss was quick to hail the trio of new boys in his line-up – and reserved additional praise for returning hooker Harry Carter.

Teenage half-back Harry Tyson-Wilson bagged 16 points on debut and packman Adam Robinson two first-half tries while fellow new loanee Sam Smeaton gave a high-quality display in the centres as the Knights, making seven changes to the team that beat Hunslet, saw off minnows Oxford 50-6 at Tilsley Park.

It maintained their record of only one league defeat and lifted them to second in League One, two points behind leaders Toulouse but now above Rochdale on points-difference after the Hornets scraped past Newcastle 38-30.

Said a contented Ford: “Sam Smeaton on the right edge was outstanding. Defensively he was very strong and made good reads and attacking-wise he looked like a quality player.

“Adam Robinson on the other side was really good. He ran good lines and gave us some cutting edge.”

Tyson-Wilson scored a solo try and booted six goals after fellow half-back Danny Nicklas departed with a dead leg.

Said Ford of the Hull youngster’s overall display: “It was a bit mixed but he did some outstanding things.

“He looks like a natural player and he did some things that were really impressive.

“He’s going to struggle to adapt to our systems straight away, and some kicks were a bit wayward and he didn’t execute some things – but that will come.

“You can tell he’s got potential to be a Super League player, but a lot of players have that potential. He needs to keep his head down, work hard and make sure he fulfils that potential.”

On Carter, who was back after six games out with a knee injury, Ford said: “He was outstanding at the start of the season and, while his defensive contacts were probably not where they were, there was plenty of bite and he was sharp around the ruck. I’m really pleased to see him back.”

Asked about the impact the 22-year-old can now have on the rest of the season, he added: “He’s firstly got to compete with Pat Smith and Kriss Brining to be in the 17 and they are two very good hookers.

“When we get him back up to speed he’ll lift the team with his competitiveness. He’s a very aggressive young man with pace out of dummy-half and he makes good decisions of when to run.

“He looked pretty hard to handle – it was a real decent effort considering he’s had so long out.”

Moneybags Toulouse had stretched their lead at the top by walloping fellow promotion hopefuls and York’s iPro Sport Cup conquerors, Keighley, 82-6 on Saturday.

York go to France in a fortnight and then Keighley in their last regular season match before the top eight break off into the Super 8s.

Said Ford: “Gloucestershire next week will be tough, then it’s Toulouse then Keighley.

“Whether Toulouse are full-time or not doesn’t interest me. We want to go over there and leave our mark.

“Then it's Keighley – we owe them a performance. We went to Blackpool (for the iPro Cup final) but we didn’t really turn up on the field.”

Ford added: “I’m really pleased to take the points here. Historically we’ve had some slip-ups against some expansion teams and there’s some decent quality among them.

“Defensively we were really good, with good contacts and some real good stuff on the edges.

“In the first half we were a little bit flat and the game lacked tempo but credit Oxford for that – they squeezed the tempo out of the game and made it hard for us to get on the front foot.

“We spoke about speeding the game up and being a bit more ruthless and the boys responded yet again to a half-time chat.

“It’s always difficult when you make so many changes but they handled it pretty well for the majority. Maybe that (the changes) contributed to the lack of tempo, but generally I’m pretty happy.”