JAMES FORD shrugged off the scoreline and declared himself a happy man after York City Knights’ opening friendly of 2015.

The Knights lost 62-0 to a star-studded Hull Super League side at Doncaster’s Keepmoat Stadium, with Setaimata Sa and Jamie Shaul scoring superb hat-tricks.

But new boss Ford found “plenty of positives” for his League One part-timers, especially on the back of a disrupted pre-season in which the community stadium wrangle has left his squad without a ground or training base.

“I thought there were plenty of positive aspects throughout the 80 minutes, especially in the first 20 minutes of each half,” said Ford, after taking charge of his first-ever match as a head coach.

“In those periods I thought we defended reasonably well and with good shape – we generally had to do a lot of defending.

“We could probably have played a bit more football at times but the lads are still getting to know each other and that fluidity will come.

“When we played a bit of football we opened them up on a few occasions and we were unlucky not to get on the scoreboard two or three times.

“Hull are a fantastic team and have some world-class athletes and on occasions I thought we were really unfortunate. We put some good plays on and threw some good shape at them, only for an unlucky ricochet to undo us and for Jamie Shaul to show some individual brilliance.

“The scoreline is irrelevant – playing against a full-time team who are much further down the track in pre-season and soon to kick off a Super League season – so it was all about aspects of our performance.

“There is a lot to work on but, generally, I’m pleased with where we are at.”

Jamel Chisholm, Josh Nicklin and James Haynes all departed with injury and will be assessed this week.

Of his newcomers, Ford reckoned prop Brad Nicholson and Nev Morrison were particularly impressive, and he also had praise for several old boys.

“I thought Brad carried the ball well,” he said. “Jack Iley defended well and Pat Smith I thought was outstanding.

“We were without Jonny Presley so started with only Pat as a recognised half-back. We also lost (stand-in stand-off) James Haynes and (full-back) Josh Nicklin so Pat was organising the game on his own and he made an outstanding fist of it.

“Nev did well also and came up with some great plays – he already looks like a real coup for us.”

With the Knights’ match being switched from Bootham Crescent due to the community stadium saga, the Keepmoat staged a double-header, with a young Hull side edging hosts Doncaster in the first match.

Ford said: “The Keepmoat is a fantastic stadium and they made us feel really welcome. They ran the double-header really well and Doncaster should be proud with how they staged the event.”

Hull boss Lee Radford, meanwhile, was pleased with his side’s show and had words of encouragement for York.

“We controlled our play really well and the decision-making was good,” he said. “It’s obviously difficult for the opposition and they used a large squad. Their season starts a bit later than ours and I’m sure they’ll want to kick on and hopefully they can do. I’d like to wish them all the best for 2015.”