YORK City Knights boss James Ford praised the togetherness and discipline in his side after they saw off Egremont Rangers in the Ladbrokes Challenge Cup third round.

Joe Batchelor scored a debut try, Dee Foggin-Johnston got his first two for the club, Danny Sowerby got his first and local ace Ash Robson made it three from two outings for his hometown team as Ford's men breezed into Tuesday night's draw with a 48-8 win.

The game was marred by two yellow cards for Egremont and the sending-off of centre Leon Crellin for a high tackle on impressive debutant Joe Porter, all of which at one point left the Cumbrians down to ten men in the second half.

Ford, though, was pleased with how his young troops kept their heads in the face of such feistiness - saying it was one test passed.

"They (Egremont) lost a bit of discipline in the second half, which was disappointing," he said.

"We reacted well to that, though. We fronted up and stuck together but we also looked disciplined.

"That's part of this team's development, having to deal with that.

"There's an ugly side to rugby league, a tough side, and it did get a bit 'cheap-shotty' but the boys showed maturity and they stuck together and stayed disciplined, which was pleasing.

"We've been in that situation now and we know mentally that we can deal with it."

A number of this weekend's ties between League One clubs and amateur counterparts were much closer than this game - for example Siddal, West Hull and Fryston respectively pushing Toronto, Whitehaven and Keighley close on Saturday.

Ford was also happy with his side's improvement from the season-opening League One Cup defeat to North Wales last week, especially ahead of the tough trip to Barrow next Saturday for their first outing of the league campaign.

A downside, though, was injury to prop Chris Siddons, who went to hospital for X-rays on an ankle after being helped off the field in the first half.

Said Ford: "I was pleased to get the win. That's what it's all about in the cup. We saw (on Saturday) that if you don't approach these games with the right mentality you can have a right tussle on your hands.

"We were in control from the off. Our contact was better (than last week), we controlled the ruck better, and in good ball we got closer to where we need to be. We looked a really good team at times.

"I was pleased - I could see the players trying to improve in the areas we had identified.

"We're aware Rome wasn't built in a day and we have to keep working hard through the season, but if we keep that mentality and keep improving, then come the back end of the season we could be a tough team to beat."

The Knights, nevertheless, were let down with their goalkicking, Harry Tyson-Wilson knocking over only four from ten attempts and Robson missing his one shot at goal. Egremont also missed their two attempts. But Ford was not overly concerned.

"If we had kicked the goals it would have been a really convincing scoreline, but it was really windy out there and we scored a lot of tries towards the edges," he said. "Harry's a talented kicker and he will come back stronger from that."

Nev Morrison was withdrawn late on after a bang to the head but it was only as a precaution.